as for Elt's voice, I could write a book on the twists and turns it's taken..
..from the supple versatile thing of beauty of the 70's and early 80's, you can hear it start to deteriorate around 83/84, so that by the time of Leather Jackets the voice and him in general was not, in his own words, "a well budgie"..
..the drug and booze-addled and bulimia-led mid-late 80's (doing endless lines of coke, smoking joints to come down off the gear.. then binge-eating thru the comedown.. knocking back a jar of cockles, a tub of ice cream, washed down with a bottle of Scotch, then throwing it all up) really knackered his voice. that combined with punishing touring & recording schedules and not using his voice's natural register or looking after it or even warming up before going on stage.. all took its toll.. he got nodules etc, the surgeons saved his voice but he lost his falsetto (was the official line) well it was never the same again, though he did the most he could with it and really his voice only became aggravatingly awful (for me) around 6-7 years ago..
..and so we're onto the shouty gravelly worn out mess it's now become.
I love him to death but I almost wish he would retire and let the legacy of his music speak for itself rather than risk unravelling it with woefully inferior "product" like his awful last album and a voice that is well past its prime.
his voice was once as much the lead instrument as the piano or anything else but now he huffs and puffs and bellows his way thru a ridiculously long setlist night after night on crazily punishing tours for an overweight little guy knocking on 67's door, maybe he should think about smelling a few roses and taking it easy at last. he won't, he'll probably die on stage but that's what he wants apparently, he's said as much in interviews, so good on him, the old poof! the show must go on!
