This confident and catchy major-label debut from 23-year-old singer-songwriter Elle Varner is made even stronger by its smart musical details – a subtle ESG sample on the slinky J. Cole duet "Only Want To Give It To You," a rolling baseline on "Sound Proof Room" that sounds like desire pushing forward. Varner's vocals accentuate the plain-spoken nature of her lyrics: On the adoring "Leaf" her soprano curls around simple proclamations of love, while the exquisitely pained "Damn Good Friends" sounds as if its lyrics were lifted from a crumpled-up letter to a too-close confidant. The body-conscious "So Fly" is the strongest testament to her chops; her flippant delivery and last-verse embrace of her self save the track from being an R&B "Cathy" strip. 

Listen to 'Perfectly Imperfect':

“Let My Love Open the Door”

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."