12" Vinyl Version of Dan Israel's acclaimed 2019 album "Social Media Anxiety Disorder." Pressed on medium BLUE vinyl! Contains lyrics, and liner notes by Peter Himmelman - only 300 LPs pressed!

Look around you. Who do you know that’s actually following their dreams? There are plenty of people who sit around waiting for the time, or the

12" Vinyl Version of Dan Israel's acclaimed 2019 album "Social Media Anxiety Disorder." Pressed on medium BLUE vinyl! Contains lyrics, and liner notes by Peter Himmelman - only 300 LPs pressed!

Look around you. Who do you know that’s actually following their dreams? There are plenty of people who sit around waiting for the time, or the inspiration, to get to the things they’re most passionate about. But not many work it, not many dive into the marrow of it and revel in the day-to-day grind of making their dreams manifest. Not to mention how few people possess the capacity to wage the endless fight that goes on inside their own minds: “Who am I to think I can become a rock star?” Yeah, who are you to think you can become a rock star?

Well, Dan Israel must have stopped “thinking” about it a long time ago. He must have traded mulling for action. And as he’s bored into the craft of songwriting, he’s learned, record by record, song by song, how to make an impression on his listeners. His writing is deceptive. He makes you think that anyone can write a song; he democratizes the process, makes it look effortless. But isn’t that the deeper skill of all the masters? Isn’t that the sleight of hand that all the greats have used? Maybe you’re thinking perhaps it’s a bit hyperbolic of me to have used those two words: “masters” and “greats” in such close succession. Maybe so. But after listening through "Social Media Anxiety Disorder" a half-dozen times, I don’t think I’m too far off — at least in terms of Dan’s mastery and his nudging ever-closer to “great” as a pop songwriter. Dan has been assisted on this strong recording (his best, in my opinion) by the adroit and imaginative production of two other masters, Jon Herchert and Steve Price — surely two of Minnesota's musical treasures.

Dan’s contended with the same stuff we all go through: the absence of love, of youth, and of quantitative success. And when we hear songs like “Just Can’t Take it” and “Still I’m Lost,” we are listening to our own struggles. To listen to Dan’s music is to feel joyously, that we are part of a larger whole. His songs reinforce the sense of unity that many of us feel is there, but often just can’t seem to find.

Amidst the Beatle-esque ebullience of Dan’s “125” we hear this refrain… “Stay Alive.” Sometimes, that’s the best we can do.

Peter Himmelman