Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent as usual, 27 Sep 2009
The latest album from folk band Show of Hands sees Knightley's songwriting tackle the recent financial crisis, politicians who milk the system, people who steal from stranded ships & evolution. There are also two covers (Peter Gabriel and Dylan) and two traditional songs. The band's playing is on top form and versatile - the opening track is mainly acapella but features atmospheric bass and backing vocals from Miranda Sykes and Phil Beer.
The faster paced songs - Evolution, the title track and Keys of Canterbury feature Seth Lakeman style strumming and a rock beat. On the last mentioned song, Knightley shares lead vocals with Debbie Hanna of Megson (The other half of Megson is the producer). This particular song is dark and dramatic. The title track is catchy and a good sing-a-long song, which I can see going down well in concert.
The Worried Well is a-capella apart from clapping and has a bit of swing to it - the lyrics appear to be a swipe at people who peddle fake cures.
The slower songs include "The Drift", which relates the feeling you get if you spend a lot of time in hospitals when someone is ill - something a lot of people will no doubt relate to, and it is captured perfectly here with a dramatic vocal line and piano backing.
A varied mix of songs that is sequenced well. As you'd expect the bite is there along with the introspection and magical melodies - good songwriting supported by excellent playing and production.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AIG reviewed, 24 Oct 2009
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.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Folk's most popular performers deliver again., 30 Sep 2009
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.
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