Dan Israel has been churning out this rootsy guitar pop stuff for upwards of a decade now without really breaking out of his hometown scene, so it's easy to understand the resignation that pervades this eponymous affair. "I'm gonna settle with me," he sings in "Settle with Me", realizing that he's "never figured out living, couldn't keep up with the race." Despite feeling as if he's stuck in a rut, though, Israel cooks up another high quality mix of grinning rockers and confessional jangle-pop tunes. "Question" captures his A-game, bursting at the seams with crisp, personable riffs even as he laments, "What the hell is this sad world coming to?" "Good Times" delivers a knockout hook, forcing us to imagine a sober Paul Westerburg.

Israel sometimes falters on the lyrical front -- "Come home flop down, for some reality, too bad there ain't any on my big TV" sound more like the words of a disgruntled uncle than those of an acute social commentator -- but he never lapses into tedium, which is impressive, considering that the album runs for almost an hour. And who knows -- if enough of us take the time to listen, maybe the follow-up won't sound quite so gloomy.