Maraad’s new album, “BUFF”, is a strange and beautiful paradox, an object forged in the very fire it’s meant to protect you from. Each track is presented as a "buff," a bit of protective magic for the spirit, but the energy humming underneath feels less like a polished shield and more like the faint, determined glow around a figure in a centuries-old altarpiece—somehow both...

Welcome to Joe Lington, a charming soul singer whose singing can turn any room into a party in an instant. Lington's journey is the stuff of stories. It started with piano classes with Lisa Gold Gervais and ended with him singing solo in a church group. Not long after Lington started to write songs about singers like Sisqo and Keith Sweat, he started to explore...