Los Angeles – Adrien Reju celebrated the release of her debut LP, Strange Love and the Secret Language at Hollywood’s Hotel Café.
In between songs, Reju explained to the audience that Strange Love and the Secret Language, (which is split up into one-half covers and one-half originals) may be her debut album, but she has been in the game for many years. This is very true, as she has spent years honing her craft in Philadelphia’s under appreciated music scene. She now calls the musically rich rural Upstate New York town of Woodstock her home. The benefit of all those years of experience in the music business was quite evident throughout her performance; along with bassist Andy Stack and drummer Dan Hickey, the band stayed true to her recordings while adding just enough panache to differentiate the live renditions.
Reju did not just perform tracks from her forthcoming release on Zip Records. She threw in two tracks from her 2012 EP Lucky Ones, “Crazy” and “In Too Deep”, adding a little diversity to her set. However, the true standouts from her set came from Strange Love and the Secret Language. Whether it was her strong covers from the first half of the album or her hard-to-pin-down indie folk/pop originals, the trio never failed to impress.
She led her set off with a cover of John Cale’s “You Know More Than I Do”. Reju gives the ex-Velvet Underground songwriter’s baroquely psychedelic track a soothing country twang that makes it sound like it could be one of her original tracks. She followed this cover with what is the most memorable track on Strange Love and the Secret Language; the pop oriented “Last Call”. The set list featured a nice blend of her new and old originals, such as “Solo Mission” and “Direction of the Sun”, as well as the unique covers of “unconventional love songs.”
Her cover of Prince’s “If I Were Your Girlfriend” required Stack to step up to the microphone and cover co-vocalist duties. The funky track from Minneapolis’ smoothest cat was lovingly reproduced by Reju and company; but just like the Cale cover, the band was able to add enough of their own style to make it their own track. In less capable hands these covers could come off as filler, but it is obvious that Reju has spent a great deal of time crafting these songs into compositions she can call her own.
Reju concluded her set with one last cover. “Hemophiliac of Love” was suggested to Reju by her collaborator AC Newman (of New Pornographers and solo fame), and it is a perfect song to be resurfaced and repurposed. With a buzzy verse and chorus that will have you humming to yourself for days, the King Missile song is the perfectly quirky choice for Reju to cover.
You can find Strange Love and the Secret Language at the iTunes store.
For more on Adrein Reju, visit her website.
Matt Matasci
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