This California quintet headed to Michigan to experience a Midwestern winter and work with former DFA member and acclaimed producer Tim Goldsworthy at his Key Club studio, where inside a converted locksmith’s building in Benton Harbor sits enough vintage musical gear to encourage soulful results. Sly Stone’s custom-built Flickinger recording console warms up the many synth sounds that serve as counterpoint to Christopher Lynch’s falsetto vocals, which dare to harsh the optimistic pop grooves of “Bullet Train” with an existentialism best left for songs like “Chrysanthemums” and the gorgeous “Purple Mesas,” where the waters are more temperate for such transgressions. Said to having left the studio only a handful of times during their month of recording, G&V got their money’s worth. The atmospheres and sonic perfectionism of “Domino,” “Colony Glen," and the playful “Avalanche” nail a lightness of being that’s well-balanced by the piano-based “Minnesota,” which was only a few states away, of course.