The decline in the quality of Amy Lee's vocals

If you know my tastes in music at all, then you know that Evanescence is my favorite female-fronted band. I got hooked on them back in high school, and I've loved them ever since. I love the guitar riffs, the lyrics, the melodies, basically everything about them.

But...

Ever since Evanescence's latest album, The Open Door, came out, I've noticed a decline in the quality of the frontwoman's (Amy Lee) vocals. Not to say that she's can't sing anymore, but comapred to the vocals on their previous albums, the quality's gone downhill.

I mean, look at Bring Me To Life (Fallen). Amy holds the ending note for a good long while, and her voice sounds incredible the entire time. Then you look at a song like Sweet Sacrifice (The Open Door), and the soprano notes she holds are just...lacking. I recall reading reviews of Fallen that said Amy's vocals were "soaring," "beautiful," and "haunting." Why couldn't she have carried that over to The Open Door?

One main difference I noticed (besides the vocal quality) between The Open Door and Fallen was the change in musical style the band went through with the departure of one of the cofounders, Ben Moody. While he was the guitarist, the songs were more alternative hard rock. On The Open Door, where Lee had more creative control over what the songs sounded like, it progressed in a different direction that's more indicative of Lee's style as a musician. If you don't know what I'm talking about, listen to The Open Door and you'll see what I'm talking about.

I surmise that the decline in the quality of Lee's vocals is due to the change in their style. In The Open Door, she tends to put a lot more power behind her singing, which draws away from the quality. Come on, Amy, where are the sweeping, soaring vocals we heard and loved in Going Under and Bring Me To Life? They've been replaced by power soprano notes, sadly.

Another thing about Lee's vocals that I don't understand is why they sound so bad in concert. I had the pleasure of attending Family Values 2007 last year when it came to my town and, I must say, while I was overjoyed at getting to see one of my favorite bands perform live for the first time, I wasn't very impressed with Lee's singing. I have talked to many other Ev-heads (fans of Evanescence) and they've agreed with me: Amy sounds nowhere nearly as good live as she does on the albums. This makes me sad, as one of the biggest marks of a good band is the ability to sound good live. I must admit, though, during the early acoustic performances of songs from Fallen, her voice sounded amazing. It must be all that moving around on stage, as she sounds good in acoustic performances where she's just sitting at the piano.

So, to sum it up, although this doesn't put me off from liking Evanescence and won't prevent me from getting extremely excited when they finally put out another album, it still makes me wonder constantly.