Confessions Sheed

Revengepop? The prog Karen Carpenter? Barbra Streisand on acid? Bat For Lashes on a bookbinge? Whatever way you choose to describe "Confessions of A Romance Novelist", the debut album by The Anchoress, one thing’s for sure: it packs a punch. Catherine Anne Davies (aka The Anchoress) sums up the album's overall concept as "deconstructing normative ideas of love and romance", with each song sung by a different character.

Violence, illegal pay-offs, drugs, intimidation – all things that you would relate to the yakuza, the Japanese mafia, but Gen Takahashi’s epic 3-hour exposé introduces us to the most dangerous gang on the streets – Japanese Law Enforcement. Takeda (Shun Sugata) is an honest police officer, father and husband, but after he’s promoted to detective he quickly becomes embroiled in dirty back room dealings, blackmail, and corruption that goes right to the top of the force. Meanwhile renegade investigator Kusama (Junichi Kawamoto) must decide whether he should shake the foundations of Japanese law enforcement with the information that has come into his possession about the police. What will happen if both these men listen to their consciences?