Maxi Priest - 2 The Max

Some might have seen such a profound shock as a reason to put their feet up. Others might have decided to carry on as normal and ignore the potential consequences. But being faced with his own mortality stimulated Maxi's creative juices in a way he had never experienced before. Despite all he had achieved (he's scored 14 Top 50 hits in the UK alone, making him even more successful than Bob Marley was in his lifetime), Maxi felt there was more to his talent than he had previously been able to expose. By the time he had returned to the studio in May of this year he was ready to work, and the results have proved revelatory.

On songs like "Hero To Zero" and "Like I Do" there's a new maturity and depth. His heartfelt reading of Sting's "Fields Of Gold" peels emotional layers from the lyric, resonating back generations to when his foreparents were slaves working the land in the Caribbean.

Not that Maxi has gone all po-faced on us. Always among the most readily physical and sexy of reggae stars, he doesn't see his new work as a rebirth - he's just reaffirming his joy in life. "I've always been out there working," he confirms. "In fact it was overwork that got me in the situation with the illness. We all have setbacks in life but it's not the setbacks that are the point. It's what you do afterwards."
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