Sometimes bands get it right when they gauge what should and shouldn’t make it out, onto the release schedule, and into the light of day. But there are countless examples when they needed to be shown how much potential there is, or was, in a specific recording. Walls Have Ears is an example of the latter, with all the tracks here recorded at live shows in London and Brighton circa 1985, and then put out for fans without the group’s permission.
In fact, Sonic Youth were actually “kinda livid” when someone released the album, as Thurston Moore put it. However, listening back to the outing now it’s impossible not to fall in love with it. And them. Walls makes a stone cold, undeniable case for Sonic Youth being one of the late-20th Century’s most artistically impressive, not to mention noisy, rock bands, clarifying just how unique their sound was during this era and how much this era helped set the foundations for their comparatively more accessible triumphs in the following decade.