Scottie Barnett lets go of control on the single Soul Controller

Scottie Barnett has a new song called Soul Controller, and SoulTracks put it forward as a first listen on August 31. The site framed it around an idea most adults meet sooner or later: that people control far less than they would like to, and that the effort to keep everything in order carries its own cost.

The arrangement is mid-tempo and melodic, built on echo and a staccato rhythm borrowed from hip-hop, with funk and R&B and soul wound together underneath. Silver Angelina sings lead, riding the beat and then climbing above it. "Everybody chases something they can't make," runs one line, which is about as blunt a statement of the song's argument as it gets.

Writing for the site, Melody Charles read the track as a case for surrender rather than resignation. Her point was that people give themselves over to something eventually, whether that is a feeling, a belief, a set of circumstances or simply a groove, and that choosing the groove is not the worst outcome available.

Barnett is a newer name on a site that has spent more than two decades tracking soul singers who work outside the major label system. A first listen slot there is a modest thing on its own, but for independent artists in this corner of the music it remains one of the few reliable ways to reach an audience that is actually looking.

Soul Controller is out now and sits alongside other recent independent soul releases the site has flagged, including work from Merce of the Jazzyfatnastees and Danielle Ponder. Anyone tracking what is coming next in the genre can follow the schedule on the release calendar.