Archie Music
Pop, 2020

Sitting in rooms talking ’bout me
Spending my money on a little therapy
Sometimes you do what you gotta do
Sometimes you win even when you lose

Therapy Sessions is supposed to be David Archuleta’s most personal album to date, a culmination of his efforts to accept his mistakes and overcome his personal demons. Unfortunately, there isn’t much here aside from mawkish statements more at home in greeting cards. From You Worry, where the above lyrics came from, I learn that he’s had therapy and he’s alright now. In OK, Alright, he’s had some rough moments of self doubt but he’s alright now. In Patient, he says that he’s had been through disappointments, but he’s alright now. In… you get the idea, I’m sure. How does he overcome these trials and tribulations – which are so vaguely worded that they could be anything from low TikTok numbers to drug issues – you ask? Well, he takes things slow, thinks positively, have faith in himself, and… profit!

The rest of the songs here aren’t much of a revelation anyway. They sound a lot like the music Mr Archuleta has been doing a while now – pop ballads, some mid-tempo tunes, the usual. The songs are still listenable, though – I like Good in the Bad (I initially misread that as Good in the Bed, only to be disappointed when I read that thing again) and OK, Alright – but with him lyrically as deep as a greeting card made by a child at class to be given to her parents, there’s nothing here that stands out in any way. Sometimes, he is channeling My 7-Year Old’s First Ed Sheeran, at other times he’s just sort of singing something, but my attention is wandering somewhere else.

Maybe the young man should take his own advice. Be brave, be open, and pour a little more of himself into his music, instead of claiming to do so only to end up in a puddle that barely touches his ankles.