Walls Have Ears

Album review

1985 was the apex of a remarkable period of transition for Sonic Youth. In late 1984, the band had made an explicit decision to abandon the approach and material of their previous three years of existence and determine a new path forward. While their early performances were rooted in a confrontational, noise-for-noise's-sake ethos that endeared them to the denizens of New York City's Lower East Side, the band knew that they had the ability and inclination to create something weirder and more transgressive: fusing avant-garde dissonance, punk rock aggression, and melodically strong compositions. Legend has it that Sonic Youth detuned all of their guitars and junked all of their early equipment so they would be unable to play their old material and would be forced to start from scratch. The result of that rebirth was 1985's Bad Moon Rising, the first truly "song-based" record from Sonic Youth; while there was still plenty of feedback and unformed noise on the record, cuts like "I Love Her All the Time" and "Brave Men Run (In My Family)" were undoubtedly the most "normal" songs the band had ever made, while the album-closing "Death Valley '69" with Lydia Lunch gamely proved that they were also unashamed to indulge in some four-on-the-floor punk rock. Bad Moon Rising also was the band's first release via the UK label Blast First–a subsidiary of Mute Records founded by Paul Smith to give UK releases to US underground artists like Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, and others. Blast First would eventually release five albums by Sonic Youth but  Smith would release an additional one—Walls Have Ears, a collection of live performances from the band's 1985 UK tour—on a "subsidiary" label called Not Records. Walls was released in 1986 (just before EVOL), and the band had no idea it was coming. That lack of permission—and, one would imagine, the relative rawness of the recordings—led to Sonic Youth demanding the album be immediately withdrawn. It was, but not before a few copies leaked out, which, of course led to actual bootleggers, which led to its status as a legendary release coveted by mid-'80s noise-rockers.

The three shows represented here—at the University of London Union, Brighton Beach, and Hammersmith Palais—are flecked with the unrepentant, abrasive energy of the group's earliest days, but you can also hear the band working through the dynamics of reshaping their sound to their new approach. Weirdly, the album is chronologically flipped, leading with material from the later autumn shows, with an earlier spring show opening for Nick Cave taking up the second half, making it sound like Sonic Youth is devolving, when in fact the opposite is true. Those Palais songs were the last to feature drummer Bob Bert, who would be replaced by Steve Shelley. The older material like "Making the Nature Scene" (presented here as "Blood on Brighton Beach"), "Kill Yr. Idols," and "Burning Spear" is still quite noisy, but also much more focused, while newer, more dynamic songs like EVOL's "Green Light" (presented here as "Green Love") and "Expressway to Your Skull" are noisier than they would ever be again. While its provenance and scarcity are a big part of its appeal, musically, Walls Have Ears is a remarkable document of the band's transition into the Sonic Youth most people know, making it an essential (re-)addition to the band's discography. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz