Outpost is an album by the Boulder, Colorado-based band the Samples, released in 1996.[2][3] The first single was "The Lost Children (A Slow Motion Crash)".[4] The band promoted Outpost by playing the H.O.R.D.E. Festival.[5]
The album sold around 58,000 copies in its first two years of release.[6] The band briefly broke up after promoting the album, before reforming with a different lineup.[7]
The Samples were able to spend two years working on the album, due to label negotiations.[8]Outpost includes re-recordings of two older songs, as well as a re-recording of a Sean Kelly song; it also contains an unlisted live track.[9][10]
The Washington Post wrote that "the Samples' music is still a bit blank, but it's consistently tuneful and mostly lively."[16] The Hartford Courant noted that "the music is almost devoid of musical hooks, relying instead on [Sean] Kelly's vocals, background harmonies and pleasant arrangements among guitar, bass and keyboards to hold the listener's interest."[17]
The Indianapolis Star stated: "From the dreamy, melancholy 'I Remember Dying' to the high-energy delivery of 'All My Thoughts (I Remember Johnny)', the Samples' Output ... reminds of a pre-Top 40 Fleetwood Mac."[12]The Republican determined that "this is provocative stuff, at times reminiscent of everyone from the Police in their prime to early BoDeans and R.E.M."[15]