California is the ideal place to cultivate the hippy vibe, and natives Gardens & Villa find themselves right at home in the Golden State. Named after the house the band lived at in Santa Barbara, the five-piece led by singer (and flautist) Chris Lynch trade in what they call coastal “cocoa vibes”, and what the rest of us would describe as synth-driven psychedelic pop music. Debut record Gardens & Villa, produced by underrated singer-songwriter Richard Swift, is a very promising beginning and something slightly darker than expected despite all that sunshine.

If you’ve listened to this month’s TLOBF podcast you might already be familiar with ‘Black Hills’ and its darkly throbbing synth pulse. Lynch, whose high and slightly feminine vocals dominate throughout, sings of “sunlight through the blinds / black hills, wild nights…up on the mountain, we climb / watch as the seas rise, so high”, and nature is a recurring theme across Gardens & Villa‘s running time. Hardly surprising for a band who seem right at home with taking things easy, naturally. Echoes of fellow hippy mystics Yeasayer appear on the funk of ‘Cruise Ship’ and the campfire chant of ‘Neon Dove’, sharing that band’s mix of late 60s (cocoa) vibes, modern instrumentation and pop sensibility.

The acoustic drive of ‘Thorn Castles’ is a marvellously poppy moment, managing to pull off the trick of carrying a chorus purely on repeating “oh-woah-oh, magic!” and leads into the ridiculous sleaze-funk of ‘Orange Blossom’, which sounds like a mix of Hot Chip and Toto, with Lynch crooning (in between piping on the flute): “think of me as a swarm of bees, buzzing around your knees / to pollenate means ecstasy….orange blossom, your pheremones take me”. Bizarrely, it all works incredibly well. ‘Spacetime’ barrells along at breakneck speed, led by electric piano, synth and yelping vocals before the chorus has a doomy voice intoning “Space….TIME!” in the style of an old black and white sci-fi series voiceover.

‘Chemtrails’ is rather lovely, dripping with harmonies and gentle rhythm guitar, and lyrics that recall a 21st century climate-change Beatles: “Dandelions fly high in the chem trail sky / new pollution magnified, and reflected in your eyes”. ‘Star Fire Power’ is dance-pop, grooving on an elastic bass and is great fun, but the record is let down a bit by ‘Sunday Morning’, a slightly obvious psychedelic ballad laden down with depressing piano and flute. ‘Carrizo Plain’ rescues things with a barely-there ghost of a song that floats along with subtle percussion and Lynch singing to a lover that “you and I are intertwined”. It momentarily threatens to build to a crescendo but opts instead to drift off on echoey harmony. In the context of the album as a whole, it’s the wise choice.

As ‘Neon Dove’ notes, Gardens & Villa do have a “cosmic touch” when they get it right – and the band mostly gets it right on this record. It’s a fine mix of propulsive pop and psych balladry, and evidence suggests crossover potential plus critical acclaim is theirs if they keep up this fine start.