For Exile at its most adventurous, start with Shelter from the Night. For the country band at full strength, try Hang On to Your Heart. Three other albums and a set of early working tapes offer places to go next.

For the band's history, see our profile. Don't Leave Me This Way and Kentucky Hearts have their own Album Reconsiderations in this edition.

Heart & Soul (1981)

For the pop years beyond “Kiss You All Over.”

Exile's six-minute “Heart & Soul” came two years before Huey Lewis and the News turned the Chapman-Chinn song into a Top 10 hit. The comparison is worth hearing. So are the songs around it.

“Take This Heart” was later recorded by Kenny Rogers. “Baby, It's Me” is Mark Gray's composition; “One More Night for Love” teams him with Sonny LeMaire and Dobie Gray. J.P. Pennington, Les Taylor and Mark Gray shared the lead vocals across the album.

In its original review, Billboard singled out the title track, “Baby, It's Me” and “One More Night for Love,” noting the variety supplied by the singers. Try those two album cuts after the title song for a fuller introduction to Exile's late pop years.

Start with: “Heart & Soul,” “Baby, It's Me” and “One More Night for Love.” Listen on Qobuz.

Hang On to Your Heart (1985)

For the band behind the hit-writing partnership.

With four No. 1 singles, this is the most familiar album here: “Hang On to Your Heart,” “I Could Get Used to You,” “It'll Be Me” and “She's Too Good to Be True.” Pennington and LeMaire wrote all ten songs.

The less obvious reason to play it is “Music.” Cash Box called it a “country rap song.” Its rhythmic delivery carries a simple point: the band likes music, whatever anyone calls it. “Super Love,” which the same trade heard as heavily R&B-flavored, is another reminder of Exile's club roots.

Start with: “Music,” “Super Love” and “I Could Get Used to You.” Listen on Apple Music.

Shelter from the Night (1987)

For a broader country-rock sound.

After three studio albums with Buddy Killen, Exile turned to Elliot Scheiner, known for his work with Steely Dan. The band also recorded three songs by outside writers.

Start with “Fly on the Wall,” by Bruce Hornsby and Bernie Taupin, and John Farrar's “She's Already Gone.” The title track is the third outside selection. “I Can't Get Close Enough,” written by Pennington and LeMaire, became Exile's final Billboard country No. 1.

Billboard and Alanna Nash in Stereo Review both singled out “Fly on the Wall.”

Try this one for a different side of the band behind the country hits.

Start with: “Fly on the Wall,” “She's Already Gone” and “I Can't Get Close Enough.” Listen on Qobuz.

Still Standing (1990)

For the Arista years and two different lead singers.

Pennington and Taylor were gone. LeMaire and drummer Steve Goetzman continued with keyboardist Lee Carroll, Paul Martin and Mark Jones. Tim DuBois signed the group to Arista Nashville and produced this album with Randy Sharp.

“Nobody's Talking” and “Yet,” both written by LeMaire and Sharp, supplied two Top 10 hits. “Keep It in the Middle of the Road,” written by Pennington and LeMaire, carried one of the old partnership's songs into the new lineup.

The album had room for the rockers and for the country ballads. Billboard preferred “There You Go,” “Yet” and “Only a Woman”; Cash Box emphasized the energy of “Keep It in the Middle of the Road” and “Nobody's Talking,” while also finding an emotional center in “Yet.”

LeMaire and Martin now shared the leads. Their records deserve a hearing alongside those of Pennington and Taylor.

Start with: “Nobody's Talking,” “Yet” and “There You Go.” Listen on Apple Music.

A Million Miles Later (2023)

For new songs from the reunited lineup.

Begin this sixteen-song album with three contrasting selections. “Rough Around the Edges,” written by Pennington, Taylor and Larry Cordle, supplies the rowdy side. “Valentine Sky,” a LeMaire-Sharon Vaughn collaboration, is quieter. “Down in Cold Water” adds the Isaacs to a Pennington-LeMaire-Vaughn song.

Vaughn co-wrote nine of the songs. “Daydreamin'” teams Pennington with his wife Suzie, daughter Jessie and son-in-law Chadley Brassfield. Merle Travis's “Sixteen Tons” closes the record.

Pennington and LeMaire produced. Robert K. Oermann chose “Rough Around the Edges” as MusicRow's Disc of the Day, praising its drive and humor. Start there if you lost track of Exile after the radio hits.

Start with: “Rough Around the Edges,” “Valentine Sky” and “Down in Cold Water.” Listen on Apple Music.

An archival detour: The Garage Tapes (2019)

These 1979–82 working recordings come from after-hours sessions at Lexington's LEMCO Studios, where owner Cecil Jones traded studio time for the band's session work. “Red Dancing Shoes” and “The High Cost of Leaving” let you hear songs developing before the Epic country albums. There is also a 1980 boom-box rehearsal of “Take Me Down,” included because the studio tape could not be fully recovered. More about the recordings.

The new record: Look Out, Heart (2026)

The reunited lineup's ten-song Clearwater album includes “Blood Red Moon” and the spiritual “Didn't It Rain,” which Pennington learned from his mother and the Coon Creek Girls. Read our full review.

Sources

Sources: contemporary coverage in Billboard, Cash Box and Stereo Review; Randy Westbrook, 50 Years of Exile: The Story of a Band in Transition; Robert K. Oermann in MusicRow, August 3, 2023; B! Noticed's 2023 album announcement; Preshias Harris in Nashville Music Line, July 22, 2019; and materials and written responses supplied to Generation Country by Exile.