Single Review: Aries - Fool's Gold

In the early hours of Friday 6th November, the much anticipated return of Aries became a reality. After 18 months of radio silence from the highly-rated breakout artist, his exciting new single ‘Fool’s Gold’ was truly worth the extremely long wait.

His previous release Welcome Home, which was unveiled in April 2019, was the 21-year-old’s breakout moment. After years of demonstrating his musical talent on YouTube to thousands of fans, his debut album proved to be a major hit amongst his online community.

After years of demonstrating his musical talent on YouTube to thousands of fans, his debut album proved to be a major hit amongst his online community

It’s success was not limited to just online fans, however. Whilst impressing his existing fan base, Aries was also able to generate immense global support that culminated in a sell-out world tour in late 2019. I was lucky enough to be present for his London show in January this year and had the privilege of meeting the man himself after the show – his hospitality towards his fans was only equalled by his prowess on the stage.

This prowess evidently translates over to his ability to produce catchy and expertly crafted hits. In the weeks leading up to the release of ‘Fools Gold,’ Aries embarked on a week-long campaign to generate intrigue into the singer’s future – deleting his Instagram posts, removing all profile pictures and going dark on social media altogether.

In the midst of heated online debates about Aries’ future in the music scene, the American ‘alt-pop’ artist revealed his secret to the world – his first single since signing for Columbia Records.

This song builds on the success of his previous album whilst adding a fresh new production quality that we had yet to see from him. His distinctive raspy high notes match perfectly with the tone of this single – one which speaks of his frustrations with ‘huggin’ the fence’ and indecisiveness whilst providing an insight into the singer’s mindset going into this new phase of his career.

This song builds on the success of his previous album whilst adding a fresh new production quality that we had yet to see from him

A song which tells of his fear of remaining stagnant in life as he looks towards his ‘next step.’ Whilst not totally abandoning the often downbeat themes of Welcome Home, ‘Fool’s Gold’ feels like a divider between his previous music and this new chapter of his life.

When asked what inspired him to write ‘Fool’s Gold,’ Aries told Redbrick: ‘I have a magazine downstairs and there’s an article in there that says ‘made in gold’ in the first line – I just thought that was really cool. The first line I did on the online Spotify version was ‘I was made in gold’ so I just ran with that. That could mean a lot of things but that sparked everything off.

‘I have a bunch of different versions of this song, by the way. I have a 3 minute 30 second version of Fool’s Gold I think I want to show a little glimpse of when I do the ‘how it was made’ video.’

One thing remains consistent in both ‘Fool’s Gold’ and Welcome Home – Aries’ raw natural talent. It is plainly evident that he has an ear for what makes a song catchy, relatable and enjoyable. ‘Fool’s Gold’ is no exception to this. If this single is anything to go by, the future is bright for Aries and his fans certainly have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.