 ", assessing it as an embarrassingly failed attempt to marry the hippie sensibilities of Crosby, Stills & Nash's past with the glossy production values of the era in which the album was recorded.He cited its contemporary, Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence", as a much more successful attempt at this combination.In a retrospective review for "Allmusic", William Ruhlmann praised both the band's singing and the performances of the session musicians, and argued that it is only a complete lack of good songs which makes "Live it Up" the weakest Crosby, Stills & Nash studio album.