Released in 2009 on the band's label Hands on Music, the album was produced by Stu Hanna of the English folk duo Megson, with additional production by Mark Tucker.

Prior to recording, Knightley endured a couple of painfully emotional years as his mother, brother and young son all battled serious illness.

The 74 ft Bristol-built wooden cutter – owned by the educational Island Trust – crossed the finishing line in second place in its class after a voyage of 4,500 nautical miles visiting 12 countries.

[6] "The appropriately complementary lean, often nervily edgy musical settings enable Steve to pull his lyric punches soberly and make a greater impact than if backed by a more fulsome or glossy production."

[8] Colin Irwin of the BBC said that "the mix of Knightley’s intense material and Hanna’s brutally direct production gives Show of Hands an almost punk potency" and said the album has an "overriding rawness",[3] whilst Jeanette Leech, also of the BBC, acknowledged the duo "stripped back the Show of Hands sound, evoking a politicised post-folk, pre-punk grittiness.

"[9] Irwin also observed that Knightley sings "so close to the microphone it feels like he’s climbed right inside your ear," reflecting the album's "inherent darkness".

[7] He also noted that "although it is characterised by the direct, literal potency of the actual lyrics, it's arguably brought out even more in the new gravel-edged textural quality that Steve's singing voice has now developed: a cracked vulnerability, an extra dimension of grainy weariness (at once resigned and resolutely defiant - the fist is definitely clenched), where he seems drained from the personal events he's undergone over the past year.

[7] Spiral Earth observed that "the songs deal with everything from the global financial meltdown to Darwin's theories, Knightley's ability to conjure a whole gallery of images from a few words is the ongoing delight.

One commentary noted that the duo had the "temerity" to start the album with the piece, with Knightley's voice being "starkly unaccompanied,"[10] whilst another noted that his vocal provides a "deceptively underpowered-seeming opening gambit, and yet before too long you feel it subliminally creeping up on you with the onset of some eerie drone instrumentation, as Steve's voice acquires a breathtaking and disturbing quality.

"[7] The BBC noted that "Knightley’s boldly coarse delivery of "Lowlands" instantly sets up the mood of rugged wayness that characterises the record.

[7] The "biting social comment" of "The Napoli" is a collaboration with Jim Causley and the Delarre Brothers, and features Knightley's "wry observance and his perceptive wit.

[11] The BBC noted that with the sixth track, "IED: Science or 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"".

[3] "The Vale" has been said to evoke Knightley's mother's wartime evacuation to a Dorset village,[7] whilst the title track, "Arrogance Ignorance and Greed", is a "heartfelt tirade" against bankers and bonuses, MPs and expenses.

One reviewer observed "something of a lack of Beer's trademark flourishes, the fiddle, slide guitar and his voice on "AIG", hardly surprising considering his activities this year.

"[13] "The Worried Well" is a gospel-tinged "full-throttle assault" on alternative medicine,[3] whilst the traditional "Keys to Canterbury" is a vocal duet between Knightley and Jackie Oates that has been described as "driving, funky-folk".

[29] The title song of the album, "Arrogance Ignorance and Greed", was released as its own single two times in 2010, firstly without any other tracks and secondly as a double A-side with "The Keys to Canterbury".

Colin Irwin of the BBC said the album was "a committed, convincing reinvention of a Brit folk institution" and an "extraordinarily earthy effort" that shows the duo "punching hard".

He said that "notwithstanding the overall excellence of the product and its abundance of must-have qualities, the final impression on complete playthroughs still obstinately remains one of an album whose sum is less constantly great than its individual constituent parts.

For, although credibly sequenced, it doesn't quite hang together logically; perhaps befitting its coy bonus track (the gentle, quiet backporch-style singalong "Rain Song"), it's a cloudy, mist-ridden enigma from which (I'm convinced) at some unspecified time in the future the fog is destined to suddenly part.

[12] On 3 August 2010, they released an exclusive live version of the song recorded backstage at Cambridge Folk Festival as they met up with Mike Harding of BBC Radio 2.

[49] Independent record label Nascente included "The Keys to Canterbuy" on their various artists compilation album Beginner's Guide to English Folk (2012).