'Ghost Is Dead," the 10th album from Tokyo's Spangle call Lilli line, shouldn't exist. Regular life caught up with the trio, leaving them with little time to contemplate creating new music: Lead singer Kana Otsubo had a baby and her bandmates saw their day jobs eat up more and more of their personal time.
Guitarist Ken Fujieda laughs as he says he couldn't even find time to practice his instrument over the past five years. "But as we get busier with our lives, and our day jobs, we found we really wanted to go back to the band," he says from an office conference room in Shibuya Ward during a work break.
For a group that used to release multiple albums a year, putting together "Ghost Is Dead" required a lot more time. It comes five years after Spangle's last full-length release, "Forest at the Head of a River," the longest such gap in a career spanning more than a decade and a half.