Show Your Hand

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“Show Your Hand”
“Show Your Hand” cover
Single by Super Furry Animals
from the album Hey Venus!
Released 16 July 2007 (Download only)
13 August 2007
Format Digipack CD, 7" picture disc
Genre Experimental rock
Length 7:57
Label Rough Trade Records
Writer(s) Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals singles chronology
"Lazer Beam"
(2005)		 "Show Your Hand"
(2007)		 "Run-Away""
(2007)

"Show Your Hand" is a song by Super Furry Animals and the first single from their 2007 album, Hey Venus!

"Show Your Hand" was made available for download on 16 July 2007 as an iTunes exclusive and released in physical formats on 13 August in the UK featuring the b-sides "Aluminium Illuminati" and "Never More", reaching #46 in the UK Singles Chart[1].

Contents

[edit] Origins and recording

In an interview with Pitchfork given before the release of Hey Venus!, singer Gruff Rhys claimed "Show Your Hand" was "a song about gambling. There's lots of card-playing going on in the Super Furry Animals bus, which may have [had] a slight influence on the subject matter".[2]

Rhys went on to state that the song was initially left off Hey Venus! for being "too generic":

“ I mean, we love The Zombies and bands of that era, and we felt maybe we'd pushed it too far, you know? And then Rough Trade came to the rescue ... we had Geoff and Jeannette [Lee] from Rough Trade saying, 'Where's that song gone? That's our favorite song!' We fished it out, and Cian added a French horn part. We felt the French horn kind of pushed the song back into contention and back on the record, and it adds a nice melodic dimension...[2] ”

Although the majority of the track was recorded at Miraval Studios, France along with the rest of Hey Venus!,[3] additional recording also took place with Chris Shaw who mixed the album.[2]

[edit] B-sides

According to Cian Ciaran both b-sides to "Show Your Hand", namely "Aluminium Illuminati" and "Never More", were originally recorded during sessions for 2003's Phantom Power.[4]

[edit] Critical response

BBC Wales described "Show Your Hand" as "classic Furries" in a favourable review on their website to coincide with the release of the track as a single[5], going on to state that it is:

“ A song of gambling and indecision, with a dark edge and plenty of clever wordplay, it's a perfect record to lift dampened spirits this summer.[5] ”

The Manchester Evening News thought the song saw a "return to the mellow-but-bouncy pop fare of their early albums Fuzzy Logic and Guerilla" and was "the best that the Furries have sounded in ages".[6]

The Independent described the track as being performed in a "sophisticated soft-rock style" which recalls "the arrangements of The Association and Surf's Up-era Beach Boys, as French horn counterpoints usher the song towards its climax".[7]

In reviewing Hey Venus!, The Guardian stated that "Show Your Hand" "is the sort of music [the Super Furry Animals] do best - hazy, lazy sunshine pop"[8]

Drowned in Sound described the song as "an almost Bacharachian gem"[9]:

“ Swimming in the dreamy swathes that typified Phantom Power rather than the acid-pop that provides their real edge, "Show Your Hand" is still hewn from a rich seam and glides on a joyously melodic horn and vocal exchange. There's little that sits in the ear more sweetly than Super Fury Animals in this form, and that leaves small room for complaint.[9] ”

[edit] Track listing

All songs by Super Furry Animals.

  • CD (RTRADSCD402)
    1. "Show Your Hand" – 2:51
    2. "Aluminium Illuminati" – 2:37
    3. "Never More" – 2:25
  • 7" (RTRADS402)
    1. "Show Your Hand" – 2:51
    2. "Never More" – 2:25

[edit] Credits

[edit] References

  1. ^ Search Results -- Singles. http://www.everyhit.com (2008-04-02). Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  2. ^ a b c Interview: Super Furry Animals
  3. ^ (2007) Album notes for Hey Venus! by Super Furry Animals, [p.6] [CD booklet]. London: Rough Trade Records. Hey Venus! at MusicBrainz.
  4. ^ Hey Cian!
  5. ^ a b Show Your Hand
  6. ^ Super Furry Animals - Show Your Hand (Rough Trade)
  7. ^ Hey Venus! (Rough Trade)
  8. ^ Worth the detour (Hey Venus! track-by-track review)
  9. ^ a b Super Furry Animals: Show Your Hand

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Super Furry Animals
Gruff Rhys • Huw Bunford • Guto Pryce • Cian Ciaran • Dafydd Ieuan
Rhys Ifans • Dic Ben
Studio albums
Compilations and remix albums
EPs
Singles
DVDs and videos
Rings Around the World • Phantom Power • Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1
Related articles
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