Varner shines on her 'Perfectly Imperfect' debut

Varner shines on her 'Perfectly Imperfect' debut

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Elle Varner’s CD opened in Billboard’s top five, and made some critics’ best-albums lists for 2012.

No one can say Elle Varner skimps on the intimate truths of her life.

On her striking debut, Varner writes about how loud she can be while having sex (“Sound Proof Room”), how drunk she can get (“Oh What a Night,” in which she ends up so wasted she can’t remember what she did), and how disappointed she is in her body (“So Fly,” where she informs us that her chest “might as well be nonexistent”).

“I’ve always been outspoken,” Varner says. “And I like to use a bit of sarcasm and humor to deal with what I’m going through. I want to give it to you real.”

Clearly, listeners and critics have found her frankness refreshing. When Varner’s CD, “Perfectly Imperfect,” came out in August, it opened in the Billboard top five. At year’s end, it’s made some reviewers’ best-albums-of-the-year lists. All of which gives the 23-year-old singer plenty to celebrate on New Year’s Eve, when she opens for Nas at Radio City.

It’s not just Varner’s candor that has gotten her attention. She has a commanding soul voice, which she harnesses with a jazz-singer’s skill. More, the material on her album shows an exciting impatience. It keeps flitting between styles, which Varner’s firm character makes cohere.

The CD’s first three songs dash through a trio of genres, from the hip-hop-accented “Only Wanna Give It to You,” (a hit with the rapper J. Cole), to the bluegrass-tinged “Refill” (with its fiddle-driven hook) to the retro-soul-belter “Sound Proof Room.”

“Each song is a different color,” Varner says. “I come from a very musical background, so there’s no way not to represent that in the dimensions of my music.”

Varner’s background stacked the deck in favor of a career in song. Both her parents claim key musical credits. Her mom, Mikelyn Roderick, sang backup for Barry White, has written for Tevin Campbell and Rahsaan Patterson, and has released her own solo album.

Her father, Jimmy Varner, played, produced and wrote for acts from Kool & the Gang to Will Downing. “They weren’t stage parents trying to exploit me,” Varner says. “But they definitely encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to do. When they saw I wanted to sing they said, ‘Okay, let's put you in performing arts school and get acting and singing classes.’”

Her parents also warned her of the business’ less savory side. “Because of all they’ve gone through they can say, ‘Hey, you don’t want to make the same mistake. It cost me more than you know.’ ”

The L.A.-born Varner learned more about such things when she was accepted to N.Y.U.’s Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music.

“It gave me a real understanding of the music industry and contracts,” she says. “Maybe you know how to sing and dance, but this prepared me for the business side. Also, I wanted to know about production. So now I can go into a session and not just say, ‘I want this to sound different, but I don’t know how.’ Now I’m able to say, ‘This EQ is high and I need more low end.’ ”

Varner’s talent and knowledge helped her get a recording contract one year after graduating, in 2008.