Sharon Jones’ new millennial emergence put sweet soul music back into the mainstream. Not only did the Brooklyn dynamo’s indie rock favor throw the spotlight back on forgotten elders Bettye LaVette, Charles Bradley, and Lee Fields, it sparked seminal new acts including Jones’ Dap-Kings and Mayer Hawthorne. Welcome Soul Track Mind to the latter stable.
Like Hard Proof and Latasha Lee & the BlackTies, STM works its homegrown circuit like James Brown – tirelessly. The Austin septet drops its third LP Tuesday, Sept. 16, dishing a hot, horn-fed, electric guitar-etched platter of hard modern R&B. Unbreakable continually urges groovers to “Turn It Up,” and we have – repeatedly.
From the explosive garage soul of opener “Ode to Youth,” which makes the Black Keys sound white, to the acoustic guitar-lined thump of the closing title track, Unbreakable’s propulsive 31 minutes arrive without an audible seam or crack in the sonic veneer. The group’s musical arc, tracking 2010 debut Ghost of Soul and last April’s self-titled sophomore disc, nets nothing but fireworks.
Strutting “Fight for Love,” loping “Silhouette,” and piano skitter “Remember Me” all sound the arrival of Soul Track Mind not only locally, but with any luck and lots of hard touring, on a national scale. Stream the entire album here.
This article appears in September 12 • 2014.



