Review: Blood Orange invites everyone to ‘Freetown’ at the Ace Hotel

Blood Orange’s Devonte Hynes is often called an heir to Prince. But on Wednesday night at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel, he was just as much an inheritor of Gene Kelly.

During the band’s performance of “You’re Not Good Enough,” a soft-funk single that sounds like the smooth station KOST-FM (103.5) gone feral, a male dance partner joined singer Devonte Hynes onstage. While his band and backup singers whispered the song’s acidic kiss-off lyrics, the two traded lifts and synchronized twirls right out of “Singin’ in the Rain.”

It was a little bit subversive in its gender playfulness — even today, one doesn’t often see a male indie singer cradled in the buff arms of his backup dancer. But the move summed up the goals of Hynes’ performance, one centered around his excellent new LP “Freetown Sound.” He imbued older disco and funk with a contemporary sense of freedom and political urgency.

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“Freetown Sound” isn’t a political album per se, but it’s one where the events of the last few years, especially those concerning black men and policing, imbue the everyday lives of its characters as they fall in and out of love. That was a savvy, mature-artist strategy for tackling those topics — one whose mix of darkness and light made a show like this possible. Because the severity of his allusions to Trayvon Martin only underlined the joy of Hynes’ moves.

Wednesday’s set was the first of two Hynes and his band played at the Ace in the warm-up to this weekend’s FYF Fest. The whole thing was streamed live on Tidal (for those still picking sides in the streaming wars), but the show was best experienced up close, the better to see just how virtuosic Hynes has become in nearly every aspect of pop performance.

His dancing was limber and fun, in the way all of us hope to look when we’ve had a couple drinks at a great party (though few of us, and certainly not this writer, ever pull it off). His playing was phenomenal — from Nile Rodgers’ funk chops on electric guitar to dramatic piano runs and even a brief intro sawing at an electrified cello. Even when he just had to knock his heels around onstage, like during his performance of “It Is What It Is,” he looked better than bands with a hundred times the stage budget.

But as much of a star as Hynes is, the night’s most rewarding moments came when he took a backseat to the women in his collaborative sphere. Hynes has written or produced for Florence & the Machine, Blondie, Solange Knowles, Sky Ferreira and FKA Twigs, among many others, and is often at his best when a female voice is there as a north star (another thing he learned from Rodgers).

So when he brought out Carly Rae Jepsen for “Better Than Me,” Zuri Marley on “Love Ya,” Nelly Furtado on “Hadron Collider” or Empress Of on “Best to You,” the crowd leapt to its feet and stayed there.

Hynes didn’t just sound better for it, though his natural breathy falsetto lends perfectly to brassier female vocals. But he also showed how influence runs both ways with the artists he works with — giving them instrumental muscle and taking in their vocal power. Even the most gifted artists are better when refracting their talents through partnership.

Hynes is one of a kind, but no one can make a record like this alone. Maybe that’s the best legacy from this moment in Blood Orange’s moment of smart, emotional, fun and firebrand pop. We all need a dance partner in the end.

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