Graffiti Tongue

Discography Browser

  • Prosperous
  • Live in Dublin
  • The Iron Behind the Velvet
  • The Christy Moore Folk Collection
  • The Time Has Come
  • Ride On
  • The Spirit of Freedom
  • Ordinary Man
  • The Unfinished Revolution
  • Christy Moore [Atlantic]
  • Voyage
  • Smoke & Strong Whiskey
  • King Puck
  • Live at the Point
  • Graffiti Tongue
  • Traveller
  • This Is the Day
  • Burning Times
  • Live in Dublin 2006
  • Listen
  • Lily
  • On the Road

Release Date

1996

Duration

35:39

Genre

Styles

Recording Location

  • Sulan, Ballyvourney Co. Cork
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Christy Moore

Graffiti Tongue

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  • AllMusic Rating
    9
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AllMusic Review by

With Graffiti Tongue, Christy Moore eschews the multi-instrument arrangements of recent albums in favor of a simple, man-and-his-guitar approach which allows an undiluted focus on his crisp and sparing songwriting. It is perhaps his most mature and finely crafted record, with an incisive lyrical focus on politics and morality that is both compassionate and unflinching. The opening "Yellow Triangle," dedicated to Holocaust victims, is a powerful reflection on the perils of apathetic and isolationist thinking: "When they took the Bible students, rounded up the homosexuals, then they gathered up the immigrants and gypsies, I did not speak. Eventually they came for me and there was no one left to speak." The equally passionate "North and South (of the River)," written with U2's Bono and The Edge, is a plea for reconciliation and healing in war-torn Ireland. "On the Mainland" expresses Moore's outrage upon hearing a BBC newscast that referred to the Nobel Prize winning Irishman Seamus Heaney as "a British poet." On "Riding the High Stool" the songwriter almost seems to apologize for his political outspokenness, warning that "knowin' it all is a lonely place to be." No apology is necessary; Graffiti Tongue is the finest studio effort in years by one of the finest writers in Irish folk.

Track Listing

Sample Title/Composer Performer Time Stream
1
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
02:46 SpotifyAmazon
2
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
03:22 SpotifyAmazon
3
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
02:25 SpotifyAmazon
4
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
03:01 SpotifyAmazon
5
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
02:57 SpotifyAmazon
6
Christy Moore / Nigel Rolfe
Christy Moore
02:40 SpotifyAmazon
7
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
03:20 SpotifyAmazon
8
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
02:31 SpotifyAmazon
9
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
02:30 SpotifyAmazon
10
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
03:58 SpotifyAmazon
11
Bono / Christy Moore
Christy Moore
03:45 SpotifyAmazon
12
Christy Moore / Nigel Rolfe
Christy Moore
02:24 SpotifyAmazon
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