Last month, Melbourne songwriter Ernest Aines released ‘Rigged Games‘, the third single from his forthcoming new album Spiral Bound which is set for release early in 2023.

There’s a haunting and emotive folk sweep that lifts the song from a straight folk composition into a heady and ethereal paean to a whirlwind relationship that disintegrates into chaos over time.

Filmed playing live to tape in the studio, Aines goes deep across six minutes of fingerpicked guitar and bruised memories. There’s a dreamy, spacious drift to the music, with Aines conjuring up the atmosphere, spirit and compelling creativity of artists such as Bon Iver, Tom McRae, Ed Harcourt and Ray LaMontagne.

Written back when Aines was 21, the song was too close to the bone and emotionally heavy for him to release until now.

Aines states about the long overdue release, “I’ve decided that it’s finally time to face the music so to speak, I want to inspire people to open up about their deepest issues. I hope that sharing this story helps the people who share a similar experience, being in a toxic relationship with a narcissist that you can’t help but still try to love because of the idealism you cast upon them early on.”