[3] Heather Phares of AllMusic commented that "Despite its thorny history, this is an exhilarating portrait of the band's shift from their no wave beginnings to the more complex and melodic style that defined their later work.

[5] Paste's Grace Ann Natanawan summarized the album as "a fledgling version of the band begin[ning] to hone this chaos in an unrestrained live setting".

[6] Reviewing the album for PopMatters, Christopher J. Lee wrote that its tracks "underscore the long, uncompromising road taken for their eventual success" and as a whole called it "a wild, unvarnished listen that gets back to the difficult, defiant essence of Sonic Youth".

[8] Pitchfork's Samuel Hyland judged that it "pinpoints the band between sputtering sound system and well-oiled noise machine, soon to transcend fringe credibility for alt-rock titanhood".

The Walls Have Ears is such an album; unloved by its creators, but a crucial and electrifying document of the group at their live best, playing with violent and ecstatic abandon".