There’s an unspoken rule in the music industry that everyone just sort of accepts: never release live versions of songs that don’t already exist in studio form. You’re supposed to be sensible. Methodical. You record, you mix, you master; you remove all the dangerous edges before letting anyone actually hear you. CAN’T STOP TALKING clearly missed that memo. Or, more accurately, they read it, laughed, and then set it on fire in front of everyone. Their new EP, Live at The George Tavern, isn’t just a rebellious little experiment; it’s a loud, messy, sweat-drenched argument that live recordings can be the realest thing a band ever does.
The George Tavern, for the uninitiated, is one of those semi-mythical London venues that seems to exist in a parallel universe where everyone from Nick Cave to The Last Dinner Party has performed at least once. It’s small, hot, and steeped in the kind of creative grime that money can’t replicate. This is where Live at The George Tavern was born; a four-song snapshot recorded on one of the hottest nights of the year, in front of a crowd that sounds like they could’ve torn the floorboards up by the final track. The result isn’t just an EP; it’s a document of combustion, the sound of a band becoming.
The opener, “Angel in Disguise (Live)”, doesn’t gently invite you in. Rather, it kicks the door down, hands you a drink, and dares you to keep up. The guitars shriek and shimmer in equal measure, the rhythm section sounds like it’s seconds away from breaking the stage, and the vocals swing wildly between desperate and divine. It’s a perfect mission statement: CAN’T STOP TALKING don’t just play songs; they stage miniature uprisings.
Then there’s “Easy Tiger (Live),” which slinks in with the confidence of a band that’s fully aware they’re onto something. It’s tight, swaggering, and surprisingly sensual depending on how you view it. Her harmonies slip in like a secret between friends, turning choruses into confessions. Drummer Luca summed up their approach perfectly: “We wanted to be bold, to do something that isn’t being done, sharing the live experience globally with our fans. If you can’t get from Oostende to the East End, why should you miss out?” It’s a simple idea, but that’s what makes it radical.
By the time “Business as Usual (Live)” hits, any sense of “business” has long gone out the window. The song pulses with jagged funk-rock energy, like Talking Heads reimagined for a generation raised on TikTok and tinnitus. It’s chaos that somehow still lands on its feet. The band and the crowd are feeding off each other in a perfect loop, and you can hear that symbiosis, the mics catching snippets of cheering, laughter, maybe even disbelief. The closer, “Down to Mexico (Live),” could’ve been a cooldown, but instead it’s a slow-burn explosion. It teases restraint, then abandons it entirely, building into a crescendo so cathartic that the final cheer feels like a collective exhale. You can practically hear the walls sweating.
And here’s the fun part: none of these songs have studio versions. Not yet. They will in 2026, but let’s be honest: there’s a good chance the studio takes will never capture this same spark. And that’s fine. Live at The George Tavern isn’t a prelude; it’s the point. It’s the sound of risk, immediacy, and community; the kind of thing that doesn’t get better with editing, only duller.
If you really want to understand what CAN’T STOP TALKING are doing, go see them live. Bring earplugs. Bring friends. Because this EP isn’t just a release. Rather, it’s a reminder that the most exciting thing about music is when it’s happening right now, and everyone in the room knows they’ll never hear it quite like this again.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
