This is down to personal taste. Some prefer 80's vocals, some prefer 00's vocals.
The irony of fans of "technique" that almost ruined his career accusing non 80's Bono singing as screaming never gets old.
edit : the comparison of a 50 year old, smoker, with the 20 years younger singer is off base. However, consider the difference between Vertigo-360 with something more recent like Elevation or Popmart. Why the complaints ? If he can stay at this level, with the occasional peak a la Union Chapel vocals, bring it on.
I agree - Bono sounds really great now, compared to his mid-90's/early 00's version.
I became a "super fan" of U2 in the 80's thanks to Bono's vocals, especially on TUF (and that, of course continued on JT and R&H). And I will also state that after I first heard AB, while I was thrilled that U2 had some faster pace "fun" songs (as few of those were on TUF, JT and R&H), I was disappointed not to hear at least some Bono's "belting out moments". There were glimpses, like on "Ultraviolet" and "Wild Horses", but nothing like there were on the prior three albums.
That said, I too recognized a need for a change. U2 were now in their 30's. They were changing their image and sound. I have my share of ZOO TV era boots where Bono does belt out a song (even using his "Kermit voice" a few times). And then there are times where he substitutes a falsetto for a scream (like in "Bad"). To this day, I wonder - was this intentional? That is, did Bono do this to match U2's new "image"? Or was this from a man who learned not to belt out every song and save his voice?
Regardless, I stand by my earlier comment. If Bono could grow his JT era hair, I wouldn't want to see it. It would look ridiculous for a 52 year old man to whip his hair around like he did 25 years ago. I don't want to see him shirtless or in suspenders either. Likewise, I don't want to hear him try to sing like his 26 year old self when he recorded JT.
NLOTH proved to me that Bono can still belt it out. But he has the experience to work ALL of his range. Maybe he has lost a bit of his upper range or high falsetto, but he's gained experience in actually singing a high note as opposed to using his "Kermit" voice or almost screaming it. I get that people might like the power and passion of his 80's voice - I sure did. But I also know I don't want to go back there again. I like the Bono voice we have now. Both eras work well.
I admit, some performances now sound a bit "lackluster" compared to the 80's. However, I also realize it all depends on the performance. Just the other day, I listened to some Love Town performances on YouTube - and I wasn't impressed. Gone was the range and power for even songs like "Bad". Instead, Bono just got his way through the song. This tells me that on any given song on any given day, you may get sheer brilliance, or you may get a solid, but not spectacular performance. And since Bono is not on any type of singing competition, usually "solid" is more than good enough, regardless of the era.
I guess the best way to summarize is that while we won't be getting any more "Red Hill Mining Town" type of vocals, we won't have Kermit singing "Bullet the Blue Sky" either.