Video Age - Away From The Castle - Music & Performance - CD

Video Age make breezy and timeless songs that are so ineffable, they can only be the result of a decades-long friendship and songwriting partnership. Across four albums, Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli have gleefully worn their influences on their sleeve, writing inviting tunes that reference sounds ranging from disco to pop and indie rock. But on their latest LP, Away From the Castle, the New Orleans duo have strayed away from nostalgia, instead making organic songs that sound like themselves. It's their best collection of tracks to date and a reflection of Farbe and Micarelli's sturdy bond, pulling from the songbooks of classic singer-songwriters that inspired them in their early days. The album is a testament to the possibilities that come from getting out of your comfort zone, the freedom of writing vulnerably and unselfconsciously, and the joys of getting to work with your closest companions.

After releasing their critically-acclaimed third album Pleasure Line in 2020, Farbe and Micarelli returned home from tour feeling creatively stuck. "When it came time to play the shows, it was so fun, but then we got home and I thought, 'What do I want to make?'" says Farbe. "I felt disconnected from what we were doing before." Micarelli, on the other hand, decided to write through the feeling of being unmoored. During this period, they took creative inspiration by collaborating with other people. They worked with Drugdealer on his album Hiding In Plain Sight, Micarelli gigged throughout New Orleans' jazz and blues scenes, and Farbe recorded local artists at his home studio, most recently producing Esther Rose's new album Safe to Run. This allowed them to give their own music a full refresh. "We realized we needed a breath of fresh air," says Micarelli. Joined by touring members Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, they rented a cabin in Eunice, Louisiana where they spent eight days in August 2022 jamming, cooking, and writing together.

Lead single "Away From the Castle," a barn-burning country-tinged rocker, is so infectious it practically broadcasts the joy the band experienced during that time. According to Farbe and Micarelli, the track started as a synth-heavy demo before Farbe decided to replace those tones with a twangy guitar riff. The result is euphoric, Farbe singing, "Pull me back, let that slingshot set me free / Telephone ring, I thought a scam was likely / I'll go back, when they come out here and make me / From my house out in the trees." The track's enthusiasm serves as a mission statement for the album, playfully self aware but brimming with the joy of reinvention.

This time away from their routines was freeing for every band member, especially Farbe, who finally overcame his writer's block. Single "Better Than Ever," the first song the band wrote for the album, started as Micarelli's tribute to writing with Farbe. Over glistening synths and a driving bass line Farbe sings, "When I'm at the point that gets me down / You step it up, you're better than ever / There by my side, two so proud." The track serves as an ode to their partnership and a motivational speech between friends. "If I can't come up with an idea, Ross can fill in a gap and vice versa," says Micarelli. Opener "Ready To Stay" builds on this sentiment: Micarelli wrote the song as a housewarming present for Farbe and his partner.

At the cabin, the fact that each band member was collaborating in a room together marked the first time Video Age decided to hone in on their live sound rather than bedroom recording and overdubbing. "Sometimes in the past, the sounds inspired the song but here the songs informed the production," says Farbe. This "songs first" approach allowed them to create on their own terms, freely experimenting rather than attempting to sound a particular way. On Away From the Castle, there are dancefloor-ready jams like "Just Think," autotune interludes in "A Knight Shining With No Armor," and Simon and Garfunkel-evoking folk on "In the Breaks."

This new approach also led to lyrical breakthroughs. "We were doing something exciting we've never done and with that came the kind of more emotional lyrics," says Micarelli. The LP's emotional centerpiece "Is It Really Over?", a slow-burning synth tune about reconciling with a breakup, proved especially cathartic for Farbe. "Sometimes you start writing a song about the smallest little moment in your life but you end up really touching on some emotions that you didn't know you could even put into a song," he says. On the closing track "Golden Sun," the band melancholically imagines a day in the life of the lonesome protagonist from the Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset."

On it's surface Away From the Castle is a document of a band having fun and rediscovering their love for making music together, but it's also their most honest and personal work yet - Video Age distilled to it's purest form. "From the beginning with this album, we weren't trying to fit into a genre, we were just making what was exciting to us," says Farbe. By breaking free of their own preconceptions with songwriting, Video Age found their voice.