Sean MacLeod – Take Control (Don’t Let ‘Em) (2026)
A regular feature on The Other Side Reviews, Sean MacLeod is quickly becoming one of the more favoured artists flying across our virtual desk. Well, it’s more that he’s made an impression, so he stands out when we sift through the music coming our way. A few months back, the Ireland-based singer-songwriter closed 2025 with the single, ‘I Know Not’, an intriguing song with avant-garde sensibilities. Today, we take a listen to his most recent release, ‘Take Control (Don’t Let ‘Em).
Produced with RobSonic, ‘Take Control (Don’t Let ‘Em) shifts from the alternative, avant-garde oddness of MacLeod’s ‘I Know Not’, and steps back into his brand of indie-pop. With a Britpop flair, the same we hear among Dodgy and The Bluetones, ‘Take Control (Don’t Let ‘Em)’ is a toe-tapping mixture of bold guitars, pulsing drums, and a flippant clip of keys sprinkled across the track. While the track is a rhythmic wave of harmonic sound, a lead guitar slices across with a kick of retro riffs, giving it, albeit small, a pinch of rock weightiness.
One thing I like about MacLeod’s melodies is how he transports you both to the music scene of yesteryear – in this case, the 1980s and 90s – as well as taking you from your armchair to the recording studio, listening to a live jam and not a streaming single. His rich vocals darting about and dancing atop the melody, it’s a bolt of sophisticated sound with tinges of vulnerability.
In our review of ‘I Know Not’, we described the track as “two melodies created, then pasted together with silvery sonic stitches… Pleasantvill-esque pop ringing in the background…”; ‘Take Control (Don’t Let ‘Em) is far more Pleasantville than the plink-plonk obscurity of MacLeod’s previous song. I can easily imagine this being on the soundtrack of that Tobey Maguire film. Moreover, the message and lyrics of the track hit that empowering questioning and understanding of life’s complexities – “If you compromise/ you might not realise / things fall apart… how will you be / Will what you feel be real/ The real deal/ Don’t let ‘em take control”
Find out more about Sean MacLeod on his Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
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