I'm not going to give you a fancy explanation because I know squat about singing techniques, but I'll tell you why I FEEL his voice is better: because he sounds like himself for the first time in 10 years.

He seemed to change his technique during the LH tour, at the beginning (promo shows) he sounded pretty OK and quite like himself but there was a lot of criticism during the first part of the American Leg because he couldn't reach most of the high notes and was doing the TLFR version of BOR and Always. After the break he slowly started to sing differently, I remember around the end of that leg people were starting to praise him for regaining his voice and specially for bringing back the normal Always after so many years, but his tone definitely sounded off. He was very very nasal (at least to me, I absolutely hate nasal voice) and he started to stand still like a statue in front of the mic, belting those notes like his life depended on it, making those constipated faces he's been making ever since. Don't quote me on this, but I don't remember that technique before. And the notes he hit were not high but semi high and longer, which gave the illusion of being powerful and high. I don't know if it makes sense how I described it, but it's basically like saying the notes on Memory or Amen are high when they aren't, he just sings them forever and the fans and the atmosphere in an arena/stadium do the rest, but they are not high notes.

Compare this Wanted https://youtu.be/4GjnDzBy1Ok?t=489 from July 2007 to this one a year apart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj_ekmnUL8k"] (June 2008 )

It's still not a huge change, but I hope you can see what I mean. There are songs where you can see it more clearly, but everybody knows how Wanted sounds, and I'm sure by now everybody knows Jon renamed it to Wanted Dead or Halive and that's where the thing originated

He still sounded pretty good in 2008-2011 in terms of power but his voice changed. Many people loved it, I didn't, it wasn't his real voice anymore. I've read in many places that he actually sang better from a singing technique point of view, which I can't dispute, but his tone wasn't clear and it got worse and worse (somebody here described as if he had cotton in his mouth while singing, which I find an excellent simile).

The first time in 10 years when he sounded back to his old self was parts of BB and the RT show he did after the disastrous 2015 minitour. But again he sounded weak like in the Bounce and HAND tours. Well, weak in comparison to before, I'm not comparing Jon now to Jon in 2003-2005, of course!!

So now he has a clear and very recognizable voice, but he needs all the autotune in the world to sound aggressive. That's why on record you have RoboJon (THINFS, Knockout) VS OhMyGoshIsThisReallyJonAgain (Labor of Love) and live you have.. well... he's struggling... we will agree on that. Feel free to disagree on the rest ;)

But then Knockout and WDR sounded pretty decent live, so I really don't know if it's something mental holding him, lack of practice or just an irregular old voice.

Sorry for the long post, it's obviously something I've been pondering for a very long time

Yes, exactly. He sounded decent for this album show, but what is going to happen on tour with 22-25 song set lists with only 5 max of the songs coming from THINFS?

He couldn't even pull off Who Says at that Clinton award show.

Yeah, I know what you are referring to. He changed his style of singing and it became more nasal to hit the high notes. But I think he still could sing with his original voice pretty high with strenght. Now it seems like he has lost a lot of his range and, although he's not using his nasal voice, he hits the high notes like whispering (and I hear it really strange). I love his voice in the mid notes, like in Lavor of love as you said, or in Scars. But the moment he goes a little higher than that, the strenght is gone. I don't expect an agressive voice, I don't care, but maybe a little more power, like in the studio.

What seemed weird to me is that, in this forum, half of the post are related to how Jon has lost his voice and, suddenly, since the last gig, I found a lot of "Yeah, Jon is back!", and I didn't understand it. But I accept this new Jon.

My "Jon is back" is in relation to his song writing and passion for the new album. I completely agree his voice is shot and THINS was downtuned to hell so he can sing it live.

I used that phrase randomly. I didn't refer to you or anybody specifically ;)
I referred to those comments about his voice only.

It was downtuned a half step like they've done on pretty much every song since the NJ Tour.

Jon seems to be back in terms of song writing, passion and happiness.

What isn't back is his voice. I personally think he sounded better at this show than anything in 2015 and anything this year. Maybe because the songs are new and work around his vocals, but he seemed better. It's still pretty shit but better and that's what can only hope keeps happening...

The whole 'static' thing isn't an issue yet, for me. He never moved on the BBC promo show for WAN really. I know you can use the whole 'he had a guitar then and didn't for this show' but it's still new songs. He seemed to look at the prompter for most songs so I think that has a lot to do with it.

It'll come with time. Once they are outdoors or in a big indoor arena, JBJ will be back moving more.

I also think that WDR the other day kicked WDR live in 2015 ass!

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where is the song Burn With Me from?

A whole step. It's recorded in Fm on the album but was played in Ebm live.

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Yup. It was previously played with a capo and now its not but the chord shapes are the same.