Sleater-Kinney weren’t ready to say goodbye during their latest performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The rock duo delivered a soaring rendition of their latest single “Say It Like You Mean It,” which will appear on the forthcoming album Little Rope, out Jan. 19.

Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker were joined by a three-piece backing band (plus Brownstein’s Portlandia accomplice Fred Armisen on tambourine), but led the performance themselves with weighted vocals and electric guitar riffs. “Say it like you mean it/I need to hear it before you go,” they sing on the chorus. “Say it like you mean it/This goodbye hurts when you go.”

Sleater-Kinney recently spoke with Rolling Stone about the hurdles they faced while trying to get “Say It Like You Mean It” over the finish line. “The whole tone of the album changed when the accident happened,” Tucker shared, referencing the 2021 auto accident in which Brownstein’s mother and stepfather died. “It was a real experience of loss. And I think that touched all of the songs.”

With “Say It Like You Mean It” in particular, Brownstein and producer John Congleton convinced Tucker to keep the record, which she had some doubts about. “I really think this is some of her best singing,” Brownstein said. “This album has a real control, a real mastery of singing that is exhilarating as a listener and as her bandmate.”

After the accident, Brownstein shared, she didn’t really have the strength to sing, so the baton was largely bassed to Tucker. Congleton added: “One of the things that always attracted me to the band was the sheer, searing evocativeness of Corin’s vocals. I was like, ‘Just fucking go for it. Don’t be concerned with sounding pretty.’”