Ernest Aines

Stereo Stickman  UK Music Blog

https://stereostickman.com/music/ernest-aines-rigged-games/

Ernest Aines Review Rigged Games 2022
Written by Rebecca Cullen

 Melbourne’s multi-award-winning artist Ernest Aines continues his climb within the thoughtful and passionate singer-songwriter realm, with the release of a heartbreakingly honest, musically sublime Rigged Games.

Featuring delicate, breathy and emotive vocals, alongside reverb-kissed acoustic finger-picking and live drums, the song builds up through near-falsetto verses towards the simple, satisfying short lines of a beautifully moody hook.

Mixed by Hugo Nicolson, known for his work on Radiohead’s In Rainbows, the set-up is naturally alluring blending aspects of alt-folk with a notably more mainstream core of melodic embrace and familiar sound-design. As such, the writing and Aines’ delivery of this is faultlessly presented, and captures the essence of heartbreak and confusion with piercingly genuine depth.

From creative verse references to the mighty resolve of a memorable hook, Rigged Games takes its place as one of the more timeless yet unorthodox depictions of love that the alt-folk arena has to offer. The post-six-minute piece even goes so far as to reinvent itself at the half-way mark, shifting towards breathy harmonies and a sleepy seductive progression, which suddenly balances beauty and loss with powerful poetic integrity.

This hauntingly blissful latter half is boldly hypnotic, and wraps up the artist’s encapsulation of the journey towards a broken heart with lasting impact.

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