The available puns and word plays on his former occupational hazard (see stage name for a clue) exemplify a mere fraction of the cleverness in Matt The Electrician‘s new album. Accidental Thief is the seventh studio album for Matthew Sever, and it’s shockingly good (see how easy cheesy that was?). Interesting accompanying instruments like the tenor banjo, glockenspiel, air organ, Wurlitzer, etc. only serve to enhance the slightly peculiar- yet endlessly endearing- poetic lyrics clearly representative of this man and his outlook on love and life. A romantic with a tendency to wrap his hindsight-steeped epiphanies in quirky folk tunes and decorate with vivid imagery, Matt the Electrician has summarily created an album perfectly suited to any stage of life or sort of relationship. Unapologetic but admitting in title track “Accidental Thief”, supportive during realistic crisis in “I Will Do the Breathing,” “crazy…dirty and kind” in traditionally inspired folksong “Pioneer Bride”, and tragically hopeful in “I Wish You Didn’t Feel Like My Home”, Matt The Electrician uses his slightly raspy tenor voice to completely entrance the listener. The music’s gentle nature is perfectly balanced and contrasted by the lyrics’ sometimes stinging twinge of mischievousness, and Sever pours his everything into this artistic display while somehow still remaining true to his gritty everyman roots.
