"Keith Richards's 1988 solo album, Talk Is Cheap, abounded in grooves, but it still sounded like an album of songs. For a musician like Richards, the live performance is the real story, and Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988 chronicles a very hot show - thereby telling the tale of Keith and his X-Pensive Winos very well indeed. Basically, it charts Richard's effort to fit his elemental riff-craft into a band of handpicked players with a group identity very different from that of the Rolling Stones. Live makes a much more convincing case for the Winos than Talk Is Cheap did".