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Product Description
Review
After 15 years, 19 albums and endless touring adventures – including three sell-out concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall – you might assume Show of Hands wouldn’t still have an original thought in their heads. Yet, battle-scarred and world-weary as they may appear, the hardy English West Country duo of songwriting craftsman Steve Knightley and virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer – now seemingly permanently augmented by double bass player/singer Miranda Sykes – come out punching hard on this extraordinarily earthy effort.
Singing so close to the microphone it feels like he’s climbed right inside your ear, Knightley’s boldly coarse delivery of Lowlands instantly sets up the mood of rugged defiance that characterises the record. It’s sure to astound those who maintain a perception of Show of Hands as populist-driven Springsteen wannabes.
Two strong factors prevail here. Prior to recording, Knightley endured a couple of painfully emotional years as his mother, brother and young son all battled serious illness, directly contributing to the album’s inherent darkness. In IED: Science and Nature, disease is sinisterly portrayed as an unexploded bomb waiting to be detonated by forces unknown amid ghostly echoes of the traditional song The Trees They Do Grow High; and the gospel-tinged The Worried Well is a full-throttle assault on alternative medicine.
Contributing even more significantly to the overriding rawness is the decision, in a brave leap of faith, to hand entire control to producer Stu Hanna – one half of the young duo Megson – who unceremoniously strips Show of Hands of all the trimmings and bluster that previously made them difficult to love. The mix of Knightley’s intense material and Hanna’s brutally direct production gives Show of Hands an almost punk potency.
Other forces come into play as the album unfolds. Mawkin:Causley add buoyancy to the disturbing story of looting recounted on The Napoli; Darwin is dissected on Evolution; two enlightened covers of Dylan’s Senor and Peter Gabriel’s Secret World add brighter colours; and Jackie Oates almost steals the album, duetting sensuously with Knightley on the blazing The Keys of Canterbury.
A committed, convincing reinvention of a Brit folk institution. --Colin Irwin
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CD Description
Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed is the hotly anticipated, acutely topical studio album from England’s finest roots duo, produced by Stu Hanna and featuring nine new Steve Knightley songs. The 20th release from the phenomenally popular pairing of Steve Knightley and Phil Beer is spearheaded by a fervent title track that potently captures the mood of the moment.
Dark, stark songs contrast with flourishing production numbers and Dylan and Gabriel covers while they reinforce their folk roots with two of the tradition’s most haunting songs - "Lowlands Away" and a blisteringly uptempo arrangement of "The Keys of Canterbury", featuring superb playing by 2009 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 'Musician of the Year' nominee Beer. Significant original tracks range from "The Napoli", a song about looters scurrying for rich pickings on the Devon coast to the soul-searching "The Man I Was" and the explosive "IED". Guest musicians include Mawkin:Causley’s Jim Causley and Dave and James Delarre; Miranda Sykes, Matt Clifford, Jackie Oates and Andy Tween on percussion and cajón.
Dark, stark songs contrast with flourishing production numbers and Dylan and Gabriel covers while they reinforce their folk roots with two of the tradition’s most haunting songs - "Lowlands Away" and a blisteringly uptempo arrangement of "The Keys of Canterbury", featuring superb playing by 2009 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 'Musician of the Year' nominee Beer. Significant original tracks range from "The Napoli", a song about looters scurrying for rich pickings on the Devon coast to the soul-searching "The Man I Was" and the explosive "IED". Guest musicians include Mawkin:Causley’s Jim Causley and Dave and James Delarre; Miranda Sykes, Matt Clifford, Jackie Oates and Andy Tween on percussion and cajón.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
An excellent album from Folk Roots/Rock duo Show of Hands. Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed is the 21st album from Steve Knightley and Phil Beer. They are accompanied by their regular "special guest" who has been touring with the band since 2004. Miranda Sykes adds percussive effect with her double bass and beautiful vocals.
Singer/Songwriter Steve Knightley is not afraid to meet modern and contraversial topics head on . The title track "Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed" punches a fist at American banking giant AIG. Poignant tracks, The Man I Was, IED;science and nature and The Worried Well stem from experiences he endured when his son was seriously ill.
Phil Beer's excellent musicianship is present on all tracks where he plays fiddle and guitar. His vocals on the cover of Peter Gabriel's Secret World are crisp and clear. Perhaps the album contains fewer vocals from Beer as the average Show of Hands listener might expect. This may be due to the fact that Phil took part in the Tall Ships Race shortly after laying down his tracks on the album.
The album features guest appearances from other well known folk and world music artists such as the superbly talented and quirky Jim Causley and the Delarre borthers, Dave and James who form the band Mawkin Causley. Young folk singer and fiddle player Jackie Oates adds sublime vocals on IED, The Vale and The Keys of Canterbury.
A couple of the tracks have a rock feel owing to the percussion added by Andy Tween demonstrating that Show of Hands can competently cross the divide between folk and folk rock.
Produced by up and coming producer and musican Stu Hanna (one half of Nu-folk duo Megson) the album is fresh, fiesty and well worth the purchase.
If you enjoy this you might also enjoy Witness, As You Were (a live album) and Cold Frontier.
Singer/Songwriter Steve Knightley is not afraid to meet modern and contraversial topics head on . The title track "Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed" punches a fist at American banking giant AIG. Poignant tracks, The Man I Was, IED;science and nature and The Worried Well stem from experiences he endured when his son was seriously ill.
Phil Beer's excellent musicianship is present on all tracks where he plays fiddle and guitar. His vocals on the cover of Peter Gabriel's Secret World are crisp and clear. Perhaps the album contains fewer vocals from Beer as the average Show of Hands listener might expect. This may be due to the fact that Phil took part in the Tall Ships Race shortly after laying down his tracks on the album.
The album features guest appearances from other well known folk and world music artists such as the superbly talented and quirky Jim Causley and the Delarre borthers, Dave and James who form the band Mawkin Causley. Young folk singer and fiddle player Jackie Oates adds sublime vocals on IED, The Vale and The Keys of Canterbury.
A couple of the tracks have a rock feel owing to the percussion added by Andy Tween demonstrating that Show of Hands can competently cross the divide between folk and folk rock.
Produced by up and coming producer and musican Stu Hanna (one half of Nu-folk duo Megson) the album is fresh, fiesty and well worth the purchase.
If you enjoy this you might also enjoy Witness, As You Were (a live album) and Cold Frontier.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Show of Hands (Steve Knightley & Phil Beer), here with regular accomplice Miranda Sykes, are the big crowd-pleasers of the English Folk Festival and Art Centre circuit. Their populist approach has done more to bring "folk" to a wider audience than anyone else since Cat Stevens or The Corrs. Hence their nickname in folk circles of of "Loads of Fans" and how they also sell out the Royal Albert Hall.
So it feels a bit strange to find the new Arrogance Ignorance & Greed album opening with the unaccompanied traditional song "Lowlands" followed by a couple of good, but not particularly catchy Steve Knightley-written songs, in "Evolution" and "The Man I Was". It is almost as if a latter day Martin Shaw is trying too hard to tone down their populist credentials and demonstrate how serious they are. However, the album then firmly hits its stride, with a much stonger sequence of songs.
"The Napoli", is a tale of modern-day entrepreneurial opportunism on the coasts of Darkest Devon and is a fine and long-overdue-follow up to Knightley's much loved (and much older) wrecking song, "Tall Ships", to which Jim Causley of recent fRoots Magazine cover-boys Mawkin:Causley contributes some great vocals that are in stark contrast to Knightley's gravelly delivery.
Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) is a brilliant and sinister Bob Dylan song. Show of Hands give it a superb cuatro accompaniment, which brings an air of Central & South America not really present in Bob's version and round it out with some wonderful fiddle ornamentation.
I.E.D (short for Improvised Explosive Device) continues the sinister theme, bringing it much closer to home and the tale is further enhanced by the counterpoint of the old traditional song The Trees Are tall woven into the telling.
The title track, Arrogance, Ignorance & Greed, is a classic and timely Knightley rant against Bankers and Financiers, with a beautiful reference to the insurance company AIG, responsible for so much of the trouble.
Phil Beer, singing a very pleasant version of the old Peter Gabriel love song "Secret World", provides some necessary relief to all this drama, while "The Key's of Canterbury" lets him add some fine guitar decoration to a fine old traditional song delivered in a very modern an upbeat way, with the vocals of two-time BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winner Jackie Oates providing pleasant contrast.
So, all in all a very good album, with some great songs, made slightly less approachable to the uncommitted Show of Hans fan by the sequencing.
So it feels a bit strange to find the new Arrogance Ignorance & Greed album opening with the unaccompanied traditional song "Lowlands" followed by a couple of good, but not particularly catchy Steve Knightley-written songs, in "Evolution" and "The Man I Was". It is almost as if a latter day Martin Shaw is trying too hard to tone down their populist credentials and demonstrate how serious they are. However, the album then firmly hits its stride, with a much stonger sequence of songs.
"The Napoli", is a tale of modern-day entrepreneurial opportunism on the coasts of Darkest Devon and is a fine and long-overdue-follow up to Knightley's much loved (and much older) wrecking song, "Tall Ships", to which Jim Causley of recent fRoots Magazine cover-boys Mawkin:Causley contributes some great vocals that are in stark contrast to Knightley's gravelly delivery.
Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) is a brilliant and sinister Bob Dylan song. Show of Hands give it a superb cuatro accompaniment, which brings an air of Central & South America not really present in Bob's version and round it out with some wonderful fiddle ornamentation.
I.E.D (short for Improvised Explosive Device) continues the sinister theme, bringing it much closer to home and the tale is further enhanced by the counterpoint of the old traditional song The Trees Are tall woven into the telling.
The title track, Arrogance, Ignorance & Greed, is a classic and timely Knightley rant against Bankers and Financiers, with a beautiful reference to the insurance company AIG, responsible for so much of the trouble.
Phil Beer, singing a very pleasant version of the old Peter Gabriel love song "Secret World", provides some necessary relief to all this drama, while "The Key's of Canterbury" lets him add some fine guitar decoration to a fine old traditional song delivered in a very modern an upbeat way, with the vocals of two-time BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winner Jackie Oates providing pleasant contrast.
So, all in all a very good album, with some great songs, made slightly less approachable to the uncommitted Show of Hans fan by the sequencing.
19 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
When I first listened to Show of Hands I was a 14 year old lad at school- I was embarrassed to let my mates hear me playing songs from the album 'Dark Fields' or my favourite 'Exile' from the first live album, I would get my head kicked in!
Now I am 25 and listen to all of Show of Hands albums with pride... that is until I heard a couple of songs from AIG- people might now think I'm into pop!!!
I really looked forward to the release of AIG, particularly after discovering one of my favourite live songs, 'Keys to Canterbury', was going to be featured and after hearing the title song Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed performed live on air on a BBC radio show. However, 'Keys to Canterbury', although still a decent track, is no where near the song it is live- the raw and rustic qualities associated with most SOH music is lost in the array of studio introduced devices such as (in SOH context) drums! I begin to subconsciously draw comparisons with main stream pop industry when I hear music produced in such a style, and that is not a good thing for me! The same can be said for Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed, it seems to be produced like a pop song- it sounds like it has been produced in a way that appeals to a more mainstream audience. Maybe it has, and has succeeded in it's intention, but I prefer the live version, the version without drums and that totally unfolky bass line- the song is way to catchy for my liking!! But still, it is a great song, just don't expect the live version to sound anything like the studio version! The worst song on the album is definitely 'Evolution', I just don't like it, it sounds electronic and is generally uninspiring.
However, there are some amazing tracks on AIG also, 'The Man I Was', 'Drift' and Peter Gabriel's 'Secret World' all live up to my personal expectations, I am also quite fond of 'IED: Science or Nature', despite it's drum kit!
Don't get me wrong, it's a good album, I just hope the next one will be more like the last two and less of a progression towards every other album in the pop/rock market.
Now I am 25 and listen to all of Show of Hands albums with pride... that is until I heard a couple of songs from AIG- people might now think I'm into pop!!!
I really looked forward to the release of AIG, particularly after discovering one of my favourite live songs, 'Keys to Canterbury', was going to be featured and after hearing the title song Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed performed live on air on a BBC radio show. However, 'Keys to Canterbury', although still a decent track, is no where near the song it is live- the raw and rustic qualities associated with most SOH music is lost in the array of studio introduced devices such as (in SOH context) drums! I begin to subconsciously draw comparisons with main stream pop industry when I hear music produced in such a style, and that is not a good thing for me! The same can be said for Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed, it seems to be produced like a pop song- it sounds like it has been produced in a way that appeals to a more mainstream audience. Maybe it has, and has succeeded in it's intention, but I prefer the live version, the version without drums and that totally unfolky bass line- the song is way to catchy for my liking!! But still, it is a great song, just don't expect the live version to sound anything like the studio version! The worst song on the album is definitely 'Evolution', I just don't like it, it sounds electronic and is generally uninspiring.
However, there are some amazing tracks on AIG also, 'The Man I Was', 'Drift' and Peter Gabriel's 'Secret World' all live up to my personal expectations, I am also quite fond of 'IED: Science or Nature', despite it's drum kit!
Don't get me wrong, it's a good album, I just hope the next one will be more like the last two and less of a progression towards every other album in the pop/rock market.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Folk for today
I can't claim to be a true Show of Hands fan, having only `discovered' them a couple of years ago, but I would guess that this album is a little less `traditional' than some of... Read more
Published 7 days ago by Camperman
Even my friends who don't like "Folk" like this album
Magnificent, angry and full of soul: I play this in my office and a number of my colleagues go "Wow! this is good." Yes, it's "folk" but it's the stuff that really gets you. Read more
Published 5 months ago by T. W. P. Esq
Arrogance Ignorance and Greed
A folk group who quietly entertain with enjoyable easy listening. The words of the songs tell a story, went down well at local venue on their latest tour.
Published 5 months ago by S. J. Holmes
Better Live as a trio
This album makes for a good listen, as described in other reiews here. I would only like to add that to fully appreciate them, you really need to see Show of Hands live, with... Read more
Published 10 months ago by bob turnip
Exceptional Album
I only stumbled on Show of Hands on the BBC Folk awards review late 2010.This album was my first purchase after haering the title track. Read more
Published 13 months ago by daveatloughton
Lost their way on this one
I am a SoH devotee and have seen them live more than any other band. Their pursuit of excellence and natural authenticity is what sets them apart from every other act. However... Read more
Published 16 months ago by R. Chidley
Show of Hands
Only recently discovered this band - absolutely love them and this is such a great album. Brilliant start with 'Lowlands' then just gets better and better!
Published 16 months ago by Sal
aig
The album was great to listen too, especially the title track,have recently seen them perform at the Stafford Gate house,they are even better live! Read more
Published 17 months ago by brummie60
Folk at it's best - Amazon just as good.
This was amoungst a few Items (5) I thought I would trial purchase from Amazon having never tried this site before. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mary Barden
Show of Hands on Peak form!
Brilliant new album supporting current tour is show of hands at their very best. Good Lyrics to Good Music. See them live if you can.
Published 20 months ago by cjohnbanks
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