Abandon Pools was one of the first in the new age of alternative rock, and although they never caught on in the modern mainstream music scene, their music has aged like fine wine.

Abandon Pools was started by Tommy Walter, an American musician and former Eels member. Walter released his debut album “Humanistic” all the way back in 2001. The album is a mixture of angsty alternative rock with a touch of electronic sound, tackling themes like relationship issues and depression.

“I like the way this record is formatted in terms of its diversity,” Walter said in The Johns Hopkins News-Letter. “You have a song like ‘Ruin Your Life,’ which is almost Motown, hip-hop, then you have ‘Seed’ and other rock tunes.” 

The album is deeply personal to Walter. During his time with Eels, an American rock band from Los Angeles, Walter never expressed his own creative vision. Walter used “Humanistic” as an outline for his own ideas and not just told through the point of view of other people.

“I have it mapped out in a certain way just to keep challenging people, because I know that we need to have songs that are accessible and melodies that stick in people’s heads,” Walter said. “I like writing songs like that anyway, so it’s fine, but I just wanna continually write a more challenging record and write the kind of record that is to other people that records like “Kid A” or “Uncle” is to me, that kind of stuff.”

The album features songs like “The Remedy”,which became their single, a song about wanting to escape or feel numb from emotional pain. The “remedy” being used as a metaphor for wanting to heal from the harsh world. Some of their songs were also featured on the MTV original, “Clone High” by Phill Lord and Chris Miller. 

Throughout the years, Abandon Pools has been in and out of making music, dropping their fifth album back in 2024 called “The Haunted House”. Although never mainstream, they planted the seeds for what was the new age of alternative rock.