"Show Your Hand" is 2 minutes 51 seconds long and is in the key of E minor.The song begins with a "Kevin Ayers-style psych-pop intro"; "a Beatlesque harpsichord line" accompanied by intermittent bass and occasional strummed guitar chords with Rhys singing the lines "You're perched so neatly on the fence, you're keeping your cards all to yourself..." as the songs builds to its first chorus on 30 seconds.