A couple of years ago, Vodka reviewed Belgium-based, Pavlove, and their EP and single, Because Of You. I’ve occasionally gone looking for updates on the band, hoping for a long-player, but I’ve either missed out or failed to report to their Facebook site at the right times as they have released a couple of singles, Give Me All You’ve Got and Keira, since the release of Because Of You. 

Enter Anything But Cupid (seen/heard here), a single released on Valentine’s day 2019, and a sign that the band continues to expand on love themes with very different feelings. Pavlove uses the figurative “real doll” in the video to portray a feeling of disconnect and failed communication within an existing relationship. When do we fall out of love? When is what we have not enough? And more importantly, do our efforts to forcefully keep things together, actually have a negative impact on our relationships?  Are we just going through the motions? As we know from news reporting, Valentine’s day is a tough holiday for those whose relationships have gone South. Rarely is the idyllic portrayal of love quite what we have in real life. The question is: Are we happy with what we have?

For the uninitiated, Pavlove is a five-piece indie-rock, psychedelic-pop band based out of Belgium and fronted by half-Iranian siblings, Reina (keyboards, lead vocal) and Fabian Rasti (guitar, lead vocal). Fleshing out the band’s sound is Daan Van Isterdael (bass, backing vocals), Helena Mayorga-Paredes (guitar, backing vocals) with Sam Enthoven (drums) providing the heart-beat. The band is young, still in their 20′s, but their music belies a much deeper human experience than their ages imply. While the love themes of their music may seem to be the same old thing, listen carefully as every track digs into textural nuances of relationships that are both edgy and difficult to face. Those themes are covered by music that is both danceable and fresh, with a touch of melancholy that makes their sound so much different than typical radio-fare pop and rock. Yet everything the band does is infinitely accessible to any age group.

After all of this positive stuff, let’s name off one negative. It’s one that might be holding the band back and it can be easily remedied: Pavlove uses Facebook and Youtube pretty much exclusively for their public presence. (Yes, they have Instagram and Spotify too) That isn’t all bad, but they are missing out on so much more that networking their name can bring them. The changes I would recommend are a Twitter account and a web page. The web page doesn’t have to be much. In fact, it can be a single page with links to all of your other sites. (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc.) Second, make sure that all of the sites link back to each other. Third, have someone with some knowledge of the band, write up a nice bio and place it on all of the pertinent sites (Facebook, website, etc.) These are marketing techniques that other bands use to make sure that their name is found everywhere.

I can’t say enough good things about Pavlove. Their music continues to intrigue listeners while challenging them to dig deeper and it is all wrapped up in a very unique style that is still accessible. Their original EP is still available on their bandcamp.com site and I encourage you to go pick it up. Watch for more greatness from this band in the future. They deserve to break through and be heard by a larger audience!