The aptly named Video Age make mellow synthesizer pop that touches on '80s pop, new wave, AM pop, and other adjacent styles. The New Orleans duo emerged in 2016 with the punk-tinged Living Alone. They committed more fully to jazzier guitar tones and bright, '80s Casio-eliciting timbres thereafter, including on their Winspear label debut, 2020's Pleasure Line, and the more broad-ranging follow-up, 2023's Away from the Castle, which also included brief digressions into disco, country-rock, and more. It was their first set to be recorded with their touring band in the same room.
Video Age was formed in New Orleans by the songwriting team of Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli, who both sing and play multiple instruments for the project. Their first album, Living Alone, appeared on Inflated Records in mid-2016. The duo returned two years later with the sweeter Pop Therapy, which included contributions from keyboard player Duncan Troast and bassist Nick Corson, both of the Convenience. All four returned for Video Age's Winspear debut, 2020's Pleasure Line. Like their previous albums, it was recorded and mixed by Farbe.
After touring in support of Pleasure Line, the duo sought out opportunities to collaborate: they contributed to Drugdealer's album Hiding in Plain Sight (2022), Farbe produced the Convenience's Accelerator (2021) and Esther Rose's Safe to Run (2023), and Micarelli played out in the local jazz and blues scenes. When Video Age reconvened, it was in a rented cabin in Eunice, Louisiana, with Corson and Troast. The resulting album, Away from the Castle, was their first to be conceived together in a room and found them expanding their stylistic influences into disco, country-rock, and more while retaining plenty of glossy synths. ~ Marcy Donelson
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