Live Well - MORE THAN YOU GIVE EP
- Samuel Stevens
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Six years can change a person. For Live Well, six years have changed the context surrounding the songs that make up their brand-new EP, MORE THAN YOU CAN GIVE, but remarkably, they haven’t diminished their urgency.
The greater New York area emo-punk band’s first release since 2019’s Perfectly Temporary, MORE THAN YOU CAN GIVE, which is set for self-release on September 3, 2026, is a compact three-song EP that clocks in at roughly seven and a half minutes. Yet within that brief runtime, Live Well manage to pack an impressive amount of reflection, frustration, hope, and forward momentum.
Originally written six years ago and demoed during lockdown in 2020 after the band’s planned SXSW tour was cancelled, these songs could easily have been left behind as artifacts of another era. Instead, Live Well have returned to them with all five original members—Paul Masbad, Max Johl, Luis Castro, Neil Stafford, and Donald Perdomo—re-tracking and refreshing the material rather than simply attempting to recreate the past.
The result is a release that feels less like a nostalgic exercise and more like a conversation across time. “GOOD ONES” opens the EP with a particularly sharp edge. Masbad’s account of being one of the few people of colour in predominantly white spaces gives the song an emotional weight that extends beyond the usual emo-punk catharsis. The track takes the phrase “good one” and turns it on its head, transforming something loaded with ugly experiences into an act of reclamation.
There’s a palpable sense of confrontation running through “GOOD ONES”—the kind that comes from finally saying everything you couldn't say in the moment. Rather than wallowing in those experiences, Live Well channel them into something direct and defiant. It’s angry, but it’s purposeful anger.
“IDK” shifts the perspective inward, embracing uncertainty rather than pretending to have all the answers. As the EP’s latest single, it serves as a fitting bridge between Live Well’s past and present. There’s an immediacy to the song that makes it easy to understand why the band chose it as the record’s final preview: it captures the restless, emotionally exposed quality that has always been central to emo-punk while demonstrating how much perspective can change over time.
If “GOOD ONES” looks backward with confrontation, “IDK” occupies the messy middle ground—the place where you're still figuring things out. Then comes “KIDS,” the EP’s emotional centrepiece and perhaps its most revealing song. Written six years ago as an outline for the life Masbad hoped to build, the track takes on an entirely different meaning after some of those aspirations have actually been achieved. Hearing your younger self describe the future you wanted—and realizing that you've already begun living parts of it—is a uniquely strange experience.
That tension gives “KIDS” its warmth. It isn't simply a song about growing up; it's a love letter to possibility. Masbad isn't looking back solely to celebrate how far he's come, but to remind himself that the future remains something worth believing in.
Across all three songs, Live Well's straightforward lyricism remains one of their greatest strengths. There is no unnecessary abstraction or overcomplication. The band says what it means, plays it with conviction, and gets out before the point starts to wear thin. The brevity works in their favour: MORE THAN YOU CAN GIVE leaves you wanting more, exactly as good punk records should.
Musically, the EP preserves the nostalgic character associated with Live Well while benefiting from the perspective of a band that has had six years to live with these songs. The performances don't feel like a museum piece documenting where the band was in 2020. They sound like musicians revisiting old ideas with new experiences behind them.
That distinction is crucial, though. MORE THAN YOU CAN GIVE isn't about pretending the last six years didn't happen. It's about acknowledging that the people who wrote these songs are not the same people performing them now. The band's decision to revisit the original demos with all five original members gives the EP a sense of continuity, while the refreshed recordings point toward whatever comes next. And perhaps that is the most fitting way for Live Well to return after such a long absence.
The band has always described itself as a gang and a family, a community built through friendship, mutual aid, love, and support. That spirit is embedded throughout MORE THAN YOU CAN GIVE. These aren't songs trying to reinvent emo punk; they're songs trying to make sense of being alive, growing older, confronting difficult experiences, and figuring out where you want to go next.
Live Well recently returned to the stage for four shows across three days alongside friends including For Lack Of A Term, Career Day, Cellmate, Girls Wish, Ghost Tour, and Phantoms and Fables. After years away, the timing couldn't be better. MORE THAN YOU CAN GIVE doesn't sound like a band desperately trying to prove that it still belongs. It sounds like a band that knows exactly where it came from—and is finally ready to move forward.
Nearly eight minutes may not seem like enough time to summarize six years of life. For Live Well, however, it's plenty. MORE THAN YOU CAN GIVE is a small EP with a surprisingly big emotional footprint: nostalgic without being stuck in the past, vulnerable without becoming sentimental, and confrontational without losing sight of hope. Most importantly, it makes a compelling case that sometimes revisiting your past isn't about reliving it. Sometimes, it's about finally understanding it.
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