Pavlov’s Dogs are a bit of a misleading band. To look at them, you’d expect some style of gritty, croaking reincarnation of a Blues band long since past. They don themselves in leather, dress exclusively in black, sport scraggy stubble and aren’t the youngest individuals either. But once you put the appearances and first impressions aside, there are some pretty interesting sounds behind them and they’ve just released their debut LP, ‘Truth of Your Lies’.
Kicking off the album you’ve got the title track. It’s a sparse track, led by some no holds barred wailing, and it’s everything you might expect from the band to look at them. The track has it’s home deep in the American south. Not a bad start, but a little predictable. And then comes track two, ‘Home’; a ballsy, open-chorded, up-tempo ballad not too far removed Foo Fighters or the Stereophonics. From that point on, this reviewer was scratching his head…
‘Truth of you Lies’ is just full of big sounding rock tunes, some with a country twang, some with a blues one, but never one or the other. ‘Last Day of Your Life’ is an example of where the Dogs strike the balance between rock and country, and the result is something not unlike Kings of Leon. With references to “Whiskey and John Coltraine” you’d be forgiven for thinking of Creedance, but the soul here is a lot more Followhill.
All in all ‘Truth Of Your Lies’ is an album of surprises. There are some immaculate rock tunes on it, some of which even border on pop. So if you happen across ‘Truth Of Your Lies’, don’t judge a book by its cover.