SPIRITUAL CANOE

Spiritual Canoe is the fifteenth Loudness album, released on 7 March 2001. It was the first record by the four founding members — Takasaki, Niihara, Yamashita and Higuchi — back in one room, and their first recording together since the mini-album Jealousy in 1988, thirteen years earlier. Counting from Niihara's departure, twelve years had passed, during which the band had worked with two other vocalists, three bassists and two drummers. The Japanese subtitle, Rin'ne Tenshō, means the cycle of death and rebirth, which is precisely what it describes. A national tour followed, and from here Loudness released steadily through the 2000s. That the reunion was a restart rather than a one-off is shown by everything that came after it.