Let the healing begin.

We're all friends here, right? Just between us, we weren't exactly feeling the latest Eminem track, "Beautiful Pain," at first. Eh, can't win 'em all, Rap God. Maybe that's why it's a bonus track off The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (out Nov. 5), and not a proper single. 

But a few minutes later, we found that Sia hook creeping back into our brain. Hmmm, maybe we'll go back and listen again just to make sure we heard it right the first time. OK, maybe five more times. Whoops, we were completely wrong. That hook is gold!

As we learned yesterday on "A**hole" featuring Skylar Grey, Eminem is often at his best when playing off a woman with enough star power to go toe-to-toe with him.

Listen to Eminem featuring Sia's "Beautiful Pain" after the jump.

The indelible Sia seems to have rubbed off a bit on Mr. Mathers on this introspective track. He shows off a surprising tunefulness, opening the song with a vulnerably sung line or two and a tasty hook toward the middle: "I can feel the heat rising/ Everything is on fire/ Today is a painful reminder of why/ We can only get brighter."

The verses are characteristic self-motivational boilerplate from Eminem in the "Lose Yourself" mold: "Yesterday was the tornado warning/ today is like the morning after/ Your world is torn in half/ You wake and it's wait to start the mourning process/ And rebuilding and you’re still a work in progress/ Today is a whole new chapter..."

It's nothing we haven't heard before, but, as we mentioned earlier: It's all about DAT HOOK: "Standing in the flames it's a beautiful kind of pain/ Setting fire to yesterday/ Find a light, find a light, find a light."

We've seen Rihanna channel Sia before (Sia did write "Diamonds," after all), but this time the Australian treasure seems like she's doing a little bit of her own Sia-doing-Rihanna-doing-Sia. Either way, "Beautiful Pain" features the type of vocal that reminds you how wounds of the heart can be saved, if not entirely healed, by music.

+ Listen to Eminem's "Beautiful Pain" featuring Sia, and go to Eminem.MTV.com to watch rare interview footage from 1999.

Photo credit: Interscope