Exile
Gary Numan used to have it all. In the early '80s, he was the platinum-haired poster boy for that wacky fad known as new wave, and his concerts--after the breakthrough hit "Cars"--were suitably outlandish affairs in which the singer even drove onstage in a tiny geometric automobile. Then? Bupkes. He faded like a pair of old bellbottoms. But withExile, right on post-Nine Inch Nails cue, Numan returns, synths a-gurgling, with a grim, Gothic update on his classic techno-sound.Exile, a study in the artist's professed agnosticism, comes off strangely contemporary, as if Numan never left. Which, as most overseas fans know, he never truly did. He released a lot of post-"Cars" albums, but most couldn't hold a candle to this U.S. comeback.--Tom Lanham