What’s the sexiest thing you’ve done all day (that doesn’t involve flagrantly misusing nymag.com’s world-class fashion-model galleries. Read the terms of service, people)? Whatever it was, it won’t compare to giving yourself over to the silken indulgence that is soul man Maxwell’s “Pretty Wings,” the first single off his newly minted No. 1 album, BLACKsummers’night, his first touch, er, disc in eight long years, which we’ve had as the soundtrack to our commute almost exclusively since it was available for download. But tender as it is, this ain’t background music: Maxweezy’s crackerjack band deserves ultraclose listening, and the guy himself, or at least his voice, is impossible to pin down — his heartbreak’s got swagger. And the video, if you haven’t yet seen it, is twice as hot as the one for “Birthday Sex.”
