There is a game sometimes played among the elite types that involves one artist trying to  logically deconstruct the work of another artist to see if the second artist was legitimate in their productions.  The result is usually finding who is “pro” and who is a “poseur.”  It may be the most worthless game played, and I played it with The Sessions.

My first thought is that perhaps The Sessions were some kind of Goth revival as their songs had a heavy amount of bass and synthesizers.  I start thinking that The Sessions is what would happen if David Bowie had stepped up to the plate after Ian Curtis hung himself and brought Joy Division in a new direction. 

Then, after the second or third song, I realized there was no intellectual breakdown that could be applied to The Sessions.  There was no substance and little historical significance because listening to The Sessions was like listening to a garage version of The Killers, but with significantly less western/Americana motif.

This is understandable seeing how The Sessions are from Canada.

And before it becomes a battle of “who copied who”, Hot Fuss debuted in 2004.  As far as I can figure, The Sessions started not much earlier than September of 2005, which is when the first comment was left on their myspace page (which was left by a woman who might the mother of the drummer).

This observation, as lazy as it may seem, is both good and bad.

I see The Sessions as being a cleaner, more cost-efficient version of The Killers.  Going to see The Sessions in concert at a local dive bar would be a more economical alternative to seeing The Killers live at some stadium.  This actually may be better than it sounds:  cheaper beer, less trendy teeny-boppers, more opportunity for technical failures.  When all of your friends talk the next day about how awesome the stadium concert was, you can say “Yeah, well, The Sessions were way cooler.”  They say, “The who?”  and your level of elitism jumps five points.

However, the mere presence of The Sessions means one thing: we have officially run out.  Seeing how music is really just twelve notes played at varying beats by a collection of instruments, the odds seem be pretty slim that two songs of the exact same caliber would ever collide with one another.  There is something to be said about music when this phenomenon keeps occurring time and time again.  The next “new wave” may involve a lot of silence.

I have chosen to write for an independent music site because I usually have a great distaste for the mainstream sound.  I believe that “independent” does not just mean “unsigned.”  There is a certain element of courage that goes along with the indie sound that has clearly been ignored by The Sessions.  The sound is recycled, their lyrics are taken straight out of a middle-school poetry contest, and their fan-posted video performances show energy, but not necessarily passion.

The Session’s poppy, up-beat sounds only show that this group has a lot of living left to do.  An artist usually goes a long way in order to give their work a final polish, and this writer believes that The Sessions’ could stand for a heavy coat of patina.

Don’t believe me?  Find out for yourself at their website, www.thesessions.ca, or on myspace at www.myspace.com/thesessionsmusic.