Carlisle co-wrote two of the tracks on the album: "Loneliness Game" and "Little Black Book" (which went to number 28 in the UK Singles Chart).

Live Your Life Be Free was re-released on August 26, 2013, in a 2CD+DVD casebook edition from Edsel Recording, featuring the original album remastered, the single versions, remixes and B-sides.

Much more consistent than 1989's Runaway Horses, this album shows Carlisle's vocal growth as she stretches with different styles.

[9] Rolling Stone were more critical of the album, whilst conceding that "Carlisle maintains her standing as the high priestess of sugar pop.

Carlisle's biggest shortcoming, however, is a failure to impart any real feeling to the words she sings...Carlisle merely stirs up a nostalgia for carefree girl groups singing gooey love songs – giving Live Your Life a certain giddy, pointless coherence" AllMusic's review stated that "Carlisle added a bit of dance flavor to her signature pop/rock stylings on her fourth solo set.

Numbers like the catchy "Do You Feel Like I Feel" and the harder-edged "I Plead Insanity" are dancefloor-ready, yet still contain the robust vocal delivery and sweeping guitar riffs necessary to please longtime fans... Live Your Life Be Free shows the singer to be capable in a variety of musical contexts, and is a pleasing listen throughout."

Retrospectively, in 2020, Steve Harnell of Classic Pop noted that "the two-pronged songwriting team of Nowels and Shipley feature throughout here but the material on Carlisle’s fourth studio outing lacks the bite of Heaven On Earth and Runaway Horses...There is plenty to enjoy here, though, from the upbeat pop-rocker of the title track with its oh-so-rawk guitars and the singalong jangle-pop of "Do You Feel Like I Feel?