U2 - "Please"

In 1997, U2 released Pop, the band's ninth studio album and a continuation of the electronic influence that had defined its sound since the beginning of the decade. Unlike its predecessors, which had been huge critical and commercial successes, Pop fell flat. The production values that had made Achtung Baby and Zooropa such exciting records here lacked the same resonance, and perhaps partly in consequence, most of the album came off as uninspired - a term which for better or worse had never applied to U2 before. Over time it was revealed that Pop had been produced under enormous time constraints and that none of the band members had been satisfied with the final product, even prior to the critical drubbing. Tinkering with the better songs on the album continued well after the release date, both in studios, where the band's career-long fascination with remixes would pay handsome dividends, and onstage, during the infamously elaborate PopMart Tour. Ultimately, many of these songs would only reveal their true caliber in live performances, and many of the resultant recordings were released along with singles from the album.

One such example is the single release Please, which includes fine live recordings of "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "With or Without You," but centers around material from Pop. The CD ends with a live rendition of "Staring at the Sun," which substitutes its clunky in-studio sound for a stripped-down acoustic duet between Bono and The Edge that enhances its previously obscured emotional depth. The true highlight, though, comes from the title track. "Please" was surely one of Pop's strongest tracks, benefiting, in addition to quality songwriting, from an unobtrusive studio production that's retained in the cut that leads off the single. The song, a denunciation of ongoing sanctimony and violence in the fight for Irish autonomy, builds up to a crescendo over the course of its five minute duration, and was allowed to do so in an unassuming way that suits its earnest lyrics. The live version that follows it (see below) is nonetheless a considerable improvement. Bono turns in an appropriately less understated vocal, which comes completely unhinged at the end of the track and speaks to the mounting frustration at the refusal to compromise on both sides of the dispute, in addition to the mounting civilian casualties. Even more effective is Larry Mullen Jr.'s reprisal of the iconic martial drumbeat from "Sunday Bloody Sunday" midway through the song - it not only points ahead to the return to basics that the band would adopt for their next album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, but in invoking an protest song released nearly 15 years earlier, also offers an unsettling reflection on the inevitable cycling of history and war. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, U2 would decide the song was no longer appropriate to play. Nonetheless, Please offers compelling evidence of how good the band could be even at the lowest point of their career, and is perhaps the best place to start for Pop-era material.