Put out a 2017 Christmas single, dicks.

Can't Deny Me very much suggests the opposite.

It is pretty good live.

Ed sounds like he's about to wheeze out one last breath and die on every live version of that song I've ever heard.

I thought he sounded quite alarmingly bad on last year's bootlegs, definitely not "loads better" now than ten years ago.

I think his best days are well and truly behind him, sadly; probably some combination of age and his unshakable commitment to cigarettes and alcohol. Even when he can hit the notes, his voice has lost much of its unique tonal quality for me.

I can agree with that. But I also very rarely listen to the boots. In Can’t Deny Me’s defense, it does sound much better in person. But I think that’s how PJ shows are set up now. They sound WAY better in person than they do on boots. Even when I go back and listen to a recent boot from a show I attended, I’m like, “I don’t remember Ed sounding like this at all”. The mix in person is meant to help his voice reverberate across a large venue. It doesn’t translate straight from the soundboard to disc. And videos from phones/cameras can’t seem to capture it well either. They’ve figured out a way for Ed to sound much better in person... but maybe a lot of that has to do with his stage presence and you being in the moment of the show. A boot will never capture that.

Sure, but it's not as though the boots are misleading or aren't accurate; he sounds bad in person too, (some) people just convince themselves he doesn't because they're "in the moment" or whatever.

Of course is voice lacks the power and control of his 1990-2006 voice. I think he had a period between 08-13 or so where he struggled to understand his limitations. He has been better about picking his spots. I thought he sounded great on several songs at the Chicago I attended and on the boot. Others he sounded fine. Only a few clunkers in there.

He was awesome in Padova.

You guys give Ed way too much flack these days. This is what happens after listening to way too many bootlegs and scrutinizing every single vocal moment.

He has his dodgy moments but he's still remarkably consistent. And he definitely sounds better than he did in 2008-2010.

I wasn't at Rome or any of the Home/Away shows this year, but whenever he sang Release its obvious he still has amazing power.

He doesn't sound like he did in 2000. It was 19 years ago, i'm not holding it against him.

Nothing bores me more than dissecting an aging rockstars voice on a message board.

Why did he stop making music? Nothing wrong with his voice.

I have no idea. Nobody here does. In one camp you have the "well he's a talentless hack and has lost all creativity" and in the other camp (me) "Well, he's in his mid fifties and he is raising his family and also he's lost some creative fire"

Lol.

I'm in the latter camp too.

Does anyone here actually think this, though?

without a doubt.

He seems to have lost the need to release new music for sure. He and Stone havend done much while the other three are all the time doing music.

we're talking fluctuating degrees of suckage here

sounded really good at wrigley 2016. let's play two is rife with impressive latter day ed.

the part at 2:10 brings the chills.