Paul Armfield - Between the Covers - 9 Songs For Bibliophiles (2025) Hi-Res

The new album ‘Between The Covers – 9 Songs For Bibliophiles’ features 9 songs about books and reading, as the punny title suggests, there are 5 new originals sandwiched between 4 cover version.

When Paul Armfield sat down in early 2024 to start writing songs for what would be his 9th album release, the first two songs that emerged were both about books, something he had not intended. Running a small bookshop in Cowes on the Isle Of Wight and releasing his own folk based music have clearly merged as this album has ended up being all about books.

Starting with a version of ‘You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover’. written by double bass player Willie Dixon for Bo Diddley, it has been in his live repertoire for some time. The recording on the album is filled with tremolo guitar, echoing vocals and an insistent backbeat. ‘Books Beside My Bed’ he calls “a light-hearted fessing-up to a hoarding affliction that many will identify with.” He says, “Barely a day goes by without at least one customer bragging about the size of their to-be-read pile, it’s like a badge of honour.” Yes, well guilty as charged as AUK’s books editor…

The wistful ‘Bookmarks’, was inspired by a visit to an exhibition of Ladybird Book artwork. A delicate guitar and piano song looking at the early days of falling in love with books and reading. ‘Paperback‘ is a soul ballad in the string filled Philadelphia tradition. It pays tribute to the biographies and novels that are read and instantly discarded. Mari Persen arranges, performs and records the string parts from her studio in Bergen, Norway has been a long-time collaborator, and does a beautiful job of building the emotive part of a story that pays off with the line “In every car boot sale and bargain box. It’s E.L James, Dan Brown, David Niven and me Only in paperback. What a waste of good paper.”

You couldn’t have an album about books without Elvis Costello’s ‘Every Day I Write The Book’, and Armfield makes it his won with a jazzy folk arrangement which distances itself from the original without losing the character. After a session scouring the internet for any songs about books that they could have a little fun with, bass player Max Braun found a song 80s legends Hüsker Dü. ‘Books About UFOs’ is late drummer Grant Hart’s tale of a girl obsessed with outer space. Another cover which departs from the original but works wonderfully well in the context of the rest of the material.

The jazzy feel to much of the album continues on ’My Bookworm’ with Uwe Schenk’s piano, tale of love and friendship between two booklovers, blooming on the Bookworm Reads community website. The album closes with The album closes with Rogers and Hart’s ‘I Could Write A Book’. Originally sung by Sinatra in the film ‘Pal Joey,’ Armfield has turned it into an intimate whisper in the ear.

While not typical AUK fare this is a truly lovely album, written and played with affection. If there is a comparison to be made in his voice and his songwriting it’s probably Neil Hannon who has a similarly observational way with words. After playing it a few times, you will find yourself either drifting to your own book stash to remind yourself why you love books almost as much as records or setting out to create a pile beside your bed.