There are some things you never ever really expect to hear on a new record ever, ever again. Many of them are on here, Duly Noted, the second album by Canadian trio Tuns, a Power Pop record of such great intuition and inspired detail that it truly taps itself into the DNA of Nowheresville, USA, 1978, even though you know it was actually released just over a week ago.
This is a cute but highly effective musical act of spot the difference time travel that more and more artists are prone to nowadays. Some do it better than others. Tun do it better than almost anybody else. They realise that you don't just have to understand what you wish to be that you have to actually be it. You have to inhabits its skin. Most of all you have to listen to Cheap Trick records of the period until you are Cheap Trick.
This to all effects and purposes is a 1978 record. Grease and Animal House are in the cinemas and the second Star Wars film is being made. America still knows precious little about Punk and every small town across the land has a band that sounds just like this one. Post Punk meanwhile will never, ever happen.
Tuns harmonies are flawless. Their trousers are tight and their teethand hair dos brush backed are perfect. They're preppyboys and perhaps not very bright or even very nice. Like Richie Cunningham's best friends in Happy Days, which was being made in 1978, even if it wasn't actually about 1978. Perhaps it actually was about 1978 rather than 1958 after all.
Duly Noted doesn't skip a line or a beat. It's note perfect. If Nowheresville, USA, 1978, is what you wan,t the train is waiting for you in the station. It has twelve stops in all and to be honest each stop looks pretty much the same from your train window. If a better leap in time and place occurs in 2021 I will doff my cap to it. Then attempt to eat it.
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