Curtis Mayfield: New World Order (Warner Bros/All formats)

HE SAW his people endure hard times and dedicated his life to evangelising alternative paths. He was a soul singer, a streetwise prophet, one of the true believers. But after being paralysed from the neck down when a lighting rig fell on his head, Curtis Mayfield must surely have felt his faith in life and love tested to the brink. Now, some six-and-a-half years since that dreadful accident, Mayfield has made a new album, and in so doing dares us to consider the existence of miracles.