Matt the Electrician
Made for Working � (Nice Guy)Folks may chortle at someone named Matt the Electrician releasing an album of largely acoustic material, but the local singer-songwriter does so with more than enough skill to earn a union card. Matt Sever’s songs are just as likely to document his interior landscape as his immediate surroundings; “Diaryland” is a particularly salient example, complete with Hello Kitty sticker. He also has fun with classic oldies, nodding at Nancy Sinatra as he reveals why “These Boots” are his preferred footwear, wryly quoting Steve Miller’s “The Joker” in “King of the Losers,” and best of all, downshifting Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” from an overwrought rocker into a meditative slow burn. Domestic vignettes such as “Lost” have a relaxed, lived-in quality enhanced by the tastefully spare arrangements and Seela’s feathery backing vocals. Even where the subject matter is hardly a revelation, like obligatory choo-choo song “Train,” Sever’s fresh-eyed perspective keeps things from lapsing into cliché; “Love on the Moon” is a whimsical, delicate rejection of grandiose analogies for the simple pleasures of the here and now. Combining an artist’s eye for detail with equal amounts of humor and genuine sentiment, Matt, electrician or no, gives Made for Working � a lot more juice than most standard singer-songwriter fare.
This article appears in April 11 • 2003.