X’s Badly Broken Heart : Check List ****<i> Great Balls of Fire</i> ***<i> Good Vibrations</i> **<i> Maybe Baby</i> *<i> Running on Empty </i>

*** 1/2X. “Live at the Whisky a Go Go on the Fabulous Sunset Strip.” Elektra.

X’s studio records have always done a pretty good job of conveying the magnificent fury of the band’s live shows, so “Live at the Whisky” offers little that X’s fans haven’t heard before.

However, the two-record set still has plenty to recommend it: a stroll through 10 years’ worth of fantastic material, three previously unrecorded songs and a version of “The World’s a Mess” untainted by the execrable Ray Manzarek organ solo that appears on the studio original.

Even though X’s music is aging well, the perfume of nostalgia hangs heavy on this record. That’s probably unavoidable; from the earliest days of L.A. punk, X was the standard-bearer and best-loved band on the scene, and it has clung fiercely to the beliefs that spawned the punk movement.

Indeed, it’s remarkable that after the success they’ve had, they continue to maintain the stance they assumed 11 years ago: world-weary outsiders, guarded and slightly suspicious, proud to count themselves among the have-nots, doggedly idealistic, and rather sad. A badly broken heart beats at the center of all X’s music, which offers rage as the last defense against despair.

X closed the shows recorded for this album with Woody Guthrie’s “So Long,” which underscores the feeling of final farewell that pervades the record. That choice may have been nothing more than a show-biz ploy--who knows, they could be whipping up an LP of new songs right now. But should they never record another lick of music, “Live” offers ample proof that they’ve done their bit for the betterment of mankind.