(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Singer-songwriter Adrien Reju, who calls Hudson home, brings her eclectic original music – a blend of rock, soul, pop, folk and other influences – to Club Helsinki Hudson on Thursday, January 21, at 8pm. Woodstock-based singer-songwriter Elijah Wolf warms up the crowd for Reju.

On her debut album, “Strange Love & The Secret Language,” Reju’s diverse background shows on a wildly eclectic collection of 10 love songs, ranging from original, soulful pop tunes such as “Moonlight,” the Motown-inspired “Last Call,” and the Roy Orbison-like tearjerker “Still Not Over You,” to a sultry take on David Bowie’s “Soul Love,” a deep-funk remake of Prince’s “If I Was Your Girlfriend,” and a pitch-perfect indie-rock rendition of King Missile’s “Hemophiliac of Love.” Reju’s distinctive vocals, a fleet instrument itself born to convey intimacy and vulnerability, ties it all together, as does her penchant for dramatic melodicism on what stands as her gorgeous manifesto, “Solo Mission.”

 

Reju was raised as the only daughter of a cellist/composer and music teacher/oboist/book editor in New York, where she was exposed from an early age to a range of musical genres from classical to jazz (her father’s repertoire) and from folk to classic rock (her mother’s record collection).
Reviewing her most recent album, “Strange Love & The Secret Language” for Chronogram, Seth Rogovoy wrote:

“Adrien Reju was raised as the only daughter of a cellist/composer and music teacher/oboist/book editor in New York, where she was exposed from an early age to a range of musical genres from classical to jazz (her father’s repertoire) and from folk to classic rock (her mother’s record collection).

Her background shows on this wildly eclectic collection of 10 love songs, ranging from original, soulful pop tunes such as ‘Moonlight,’ the Motown-inspired ‘Last Call,’ and the Roy Orbison-like tearjerker ‘Still Not Over You,’ to a sultry take on David Bowie’s ‘Soul Love,’ a deep-funk remake of Prince’s ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’ (with a hint of Suzanne Vega’s ‘Tom’s Diner’ thrown in), and a pitch-perfect indie-rock rendition of King Missile’s ‘Hemophiliac of Love’ with a vocal assist from A.C. Newman of the New Pornographers….

What ties it all together is Reju’s distinctive vocals, a fleet instrument itself born to convey intimacy and vulnerability, and her penchant for dramatic melodicism on what stands as her gorgeous manifesto, ‘Solo Mission.’”