Nettwerk Records
2003
Living Outside
About This Album
The breakout success of "Save Yourself" in 2002 was due neither to fluke nor bandwagoneering. Even as far back as 1994's Killed for Less, Sense Field showed the ability to sprinkle its punk and hardcore influences with crocodile tears, so the issuing of a three-minute soundtrack to an emo kid make-out party wasn't very far-fetched. Living Outside is as conscious a follow-up record as there can be, but it's likely also the record Sense Field would've made anyway, even without the band's mainstream ascendancy. Outside was written principally by guitarist Chris Evenson and vocalist Jon Bunch, and they've looked to new wave and 1980s guitar pop to define the album's sound. Synths and processed loops turn up throughout, in part replacing the contributions of guitarist Rodney Sellars, who opted out of Sense Field to focus on family issues. The whirring, fuzzy electronics plop "No Medicine," "Take What You Want," and "Haunted" somewhere between Depeche Mode and Garbage. But a completely unpretentious Cure cover is a winking reminder that the guys in Sense Field are old enough to draw their '80s influences from their high-school music collections, instead of a bag of studio tricks.
Track List (try track 5)

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