Maybe i just missed the, as you called it, "horrible cracked straining" high notes but everything sounded fine to me. I'm not a huge fan of too much vibrato but the pitching and tone of you voice is really good.
If you're struggling to hit the high notes there could be a number of reasons;
Age - when you say "younger" do you mean before your voice dropped or after? It sounds daft and probably not what you mean but bare in mind mens voices naturally drop in their teens anyway (but you knew this, i'm simply double checking)
Smoking - are you or have you ever been a smoker? Strangely enough i've met people where this has worked both ways; some stopped smoking and found that with some practice their range came back. A couple however found they stopped smoking and the tone of their voice and range changed so much that they started smoking again!
Confidence - this, to me, is probably the heart of the issue. When you're worried/stressed your muscles naturally tense up. If you tell yourself you
can't hit the high notes that you once could, when you go to sing them you body literally tightens up making the vocal chords not work the way they should and therefore you physically struggle to hit the notes. The danger is that it's a vicious cycle - you convince yourself you can't hit the high notes, the stress then makes it physically difficult to hit the high notes, and so you convince yourself you can't hit the high notes. Is there a way to break this cycle? yes - through relaxation techniques, breathing techniques, and practice.
Every year i work with students who have been demoralised/broken down through schools and families, and who have a self esteem issues (they're teenagers on a music course, self esteem issues are part of the package) and every year we help them build their confidence in their natural abilities and it's incredible to watch as shy, quiet, unconfident singers with limited ranges turn into divas with huge voices which they had all along.
Practice - it could simply be that you're out of practice. Maybe i'm reading into this all wrong, but it would
appear that you sang loads when you were younger and are now trying to get back in to it. If so, it may simply be that you are out of practice, in which case buliding and working to a practice regime will help a lot
song choice - again, it may sound odd, but are you simply singing songs that are in keys/ranges that don't suit your voice? Over the years as a singer/songwriter i've realised that one of the most important tools in my arsenal is the ability to transpose songs into a key that is comfortable for me to sing, or simply finding songs that are already within my range.
medical - there
may be, as someone commented on your last thread, a medical reason that you can't sing as high as you once could. I've had a couple of friends with vocal chord issues, but these are few and fare between and before you jump to conclusions and diagnose yourself with every condition ever named, ever, i'd strongly suggest looking at simply building a structured practice regime and working on building your confidence.
As i said, i think you have a good voice so stick at it man
I assure you there are a lot of really awesome and super knowledgeable people on these boards who will go above and beyond to help anyone and everyone when they can. However, i think the main focus of a lot of these boards are "recording and mixing" and although there are a lot of singers on here the vast majority of people hang out in the recording related sections so it may just be that many people don't frequent the singing parts of the boards. When i finally signed up to some forums after years of lurking i signed up to three of four. However, of all of the ones i signed up to, this has been the only one i've stuck with as this place seems to have the nicest people and a very welcoming attitude (and a very good sense of humour).