Hit Record: A Very Unprofessional Album Review Podcast · Jetstream Radio

Hit record episode 69: Only God Was Above Us

·1 hr 35 min·5 clips

The hosts spend over a minute on Factorio’s factory automation, trains, and robots.

1. Hit Record: A Very Unprofessional Album Review Podcast episode 69 centers on Vampire Weekend’s 2024 album Only God Was Above Us. 2. John and Ginty are the only named hosts, and they frame the episode as a two-person catch-up with no guest. 3. The episode asks what John has been doing over Christmas before it gets to the album review. 4. They explain that the Christmas episode did not go out because the recording dates could not be made to work. 5. John says he has spent most of the holiday playing Factorio, which he describes as a crash-landed automation game. 6. He explains the loop from hand-mining iron, steel, copper, and coal to using mining drills and conveyor belts. 7. The Factorio discussion moves into electricity, steam engines, trains, circuitry, and robots. 8. John says his current factory has thousands of moving parts and one early-game corner now looks slow and janky. 9. Ginty says the game hooks him by starting simple and then slowly adding automation, research, and infrastructure. 10. John gives a Steam total of 753 hours and says he started this run around December 20, 21, or 22. 11. John also talks about buying an electric drum kit after seeing one for about 150 pounds instead of 800 or 900 pounds. 12. He compares it with an old Yamaha-style school kit and says the mesh pads feel closer to a real drum skin. 13. The drum kit can be hung on the wall, which matters because the old acoustic kit was loud and took up space. 14. John then shifts to whiskey and says he used to be the non-drinker of the group until around age 23. 15. He says working in a whiskey bar taught him island styles and led him to appreciate “fancy malt whiskeys.” 16. He describes getting a Balvenie bottle, rocks stones, and the idea of having “a wee dram” now and then. 17. The tone stays conversational, with a lot of back-and-forth, jokes, and digressions from one topic to another. 18. The episode sounds informal and unscripted, with both hosts interrupting themselves and each other while keeping the pace loose. 19. Listeners who like long-form chat about games, music, and gear will enjoy this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a tight album review with minimal digression will probably skip it.

As heard by us

A Vampire Weekend review that stays loose, but keeps the album at the center.

This episode uses Vampire Weekend's Only God Was Above Us as the anchor for a loose, focused album conversation. It is a two-host, no-guest format, and the record gets real attention, including the case for calling it one host's album of the year.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a Vampire Weekend verdict that keeps getting derailed by very human nonsense.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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