Woke Up Today is a revelation. Tom Laramee is an emerging talent, and this album affords most of us our first chance to hear what he’s capable of. Unburdened from the challenging acoustics of the bar scene, Laramee has used the studio space and backing instruments to full effect, revealing a songwriting and lyrical gift to match his accomplished guitar work. Woke Up Today opens with the catchy, melodic Slipstream, a song so insidiously hummable that it’s difficult to notice the words the first time through. As if anxious to prove his range as quickly as possible, Laramee moves immediately into Woke Up Today, a painfully beautiful song with haunting verses and a soaring, powerful chorus. Just as fun as when Laramee is exhibiting his technical craft are the occasions on which he simply lets loose. Never Before is a careening, energetic ride, filled with exuberant, playful lyrics. You can easily imagine the songwriter daring himself to find a way to sing: I’d like to open up a box of paints and paint upon your skin in bands of red and gold and all of the colors that I see when I’m in a plane flying high above the clouds and watching squares of green and yellow and threads of blue cutting paths, inbetween impossibly high mountains and watching the blood red sun sink into the sky... Throughout the album, Laramee reveals an almost heartbreaking honesty, and the courage to take himself and his music seriously. Perhaps nowhere is this as evident as in Louder than Words, a relentless, driving song, performed with such integrity that the lyrics seem universal, rather than clichéd. Working it All Out and Happier Then are mournful confessionals that never slip into the maudlin: Looking back now I can see It’s better not to ask a question at all Instead of ignoring the answer This is an artful, complex album, which covers a lot of musical and lyrical ground in ten songs. It’s also a declaration that Tom Laramee is a force to be reckoned with. [Andrew Gross, Seattle, WA]