Who'd ever expected it? One of the finest records of the year is not even a 'rainsound' record. Or, well, maybe it's got to be, since it turned irresistible after a couple of listens. Tommy Walter, who once liked to play bass for the Eels, has decided to turn serious this time, and to deliver a record with master arrangements and state-of-the art melodies, let alone those really soulful lyrics which sound kind of out of tune in the big prepacked music universe out there. To do so, he's called in a couple of people that know something about doing a good job, such as drummer John Freese (once with A Perfect Circle) and Frente's vocalist Angie Hart, here delivering a heavenly performance. Pushing the buttons in the producer's room were Paul Q Kolderie & Sean Slade - together with Walter himself - who have already worked with Radiohead.

It's perhaps likely that the die-hard Blue Nile fans won't like Abandoned Pools' desperate anthems and all those roaring guitars (hey, this guy was with the Eels!), but they will sure have problems taking out of their minds the more minimal ballads and, especially, the striking tunes of songs like 'Ruin Your Life' and 'Never', an acoustic and weird country-pop-soul ballad guitar-driven and piano-tinged, definitely one of Rainsound's current favourites. Okay, maybe even Prefab Sprout fans will think Rainsound's gone mad and some of you will wonder what this album is doing in this website, but it's just too darn good that it deserves to come overground in every way. As of today, Abandoned Pools haven't signed any deal for an European distribution (but maybe Warner Bros will think about it) and, on its release date - September 25 - only American fans will be able to grab a copy. For the others, Extasy Records is streaming the complete album on its website. So that you won't have to blame Rainsound for recommending an album that's got very little to do with - er - classic rainpop.