Gary Numan. Cars. That's what a majority of consumers and record execs generally know of Numan. That's all I knew about Numan. Last year, someone let me borrow Exile. I didn't want to give it back. This is quite possibly, one of the greatest albums ever made. Sure, many people would love to disagree with me, and that's great. Exile is a continuous journey thru all nine tracks (I don't count the live track, which doesn't belong). Numan sets a tone starting with "Dominion Day" that doesn't let up, all the way thru to the last track, "Exile". The lyrics are amazing. The best he's ever written. The melodies are hook driven. Numan's voice is top notch and blends "frightengly" well with the music. "Sacrafice" and "Pure" are bookends to this masterpiece. Three great albums with the center piece being the meat and shinning light. It's a shame that Numan hasn't gotten more recognition for his work. But then again, this fast food/MTV generation isn't looking for substance or musical genius. If fast food is your thing, stick with TRL. I'll stick with the five star restuarants.

Gary Numan made some excellent music in the late 70's and early 80's. However, "Exile" is a plodding and incredibly bland album.

Firstly, Numan tries to emulate contemporary Industrial / Darkwave artists and fails. Unfortunately, the album sounds incredibly stale because of this - Instead of creating new musical explorations, he tries to copy contemporary artists who were originally influenced by him. It's a terrible case of Numan being unable to keep up with the youthful, energetic pace of todays music.

Musically the album is very monotonous - Most songs consist of one simplistic drum loop and a couple of basic guitar/ synth tracks.
Numans vocal performance is also relatively weak and uninspiring. Lyrically the album is obviously aimed at a certain demographic and is cliche ridden. It is a shame considering past albums of creative brilliance.

"Exile" is also produced in a lacklustre fashion - It sounds more like a 4 track demo, not a professional recording. This adds to the disappointment.

In conclusion, this album doesn't rekindle past brilliance. It appears to be a tired old star trying to cash in on a target demographic.
Numan does the motions and sounds very weary. This "Come Back" album was purely based on monetary gain, not artistic adventure.
A few songs could have possibly been refined and better recorded for a small EP. Yet overall this album isn't worth the time or money.

"Exile" is a concept album written around a central question, which is, 'what if God and the Devil were the same person and heaven and hell were the same place and it's only our perception that makes them appear to be one or the other?'. Numan at times uses a strong, loud and agressive back drop to put forward his ideas ("Dominion Day", "The Angel Wars") whilst at other times a quieter, sneering, almost nasty hush like quality ("Exile", "Prophesy") is used to convey his misgivings towards 'blind faith'. The album is a brooding, dark and very sombre, almost haunting piece of work. It takes the atmosphere of his previous album ("Sacrifice") and adds a large degree of menace. Many of the songs are immediate in their sonic appeal. Others take a while. Overall, it's vintage Numan twisting and meshing the gothic-rock genre into his own unique style. Class.