ONE AMONG THE LIVING

Produced during Benoit David's tenure as the lead singer of Yes, Mystery's One Among the Living is an album which is gets by mainly on the strength of David's vocal performance. It's not that he does anything hyper-original or unexpected with his vocals - there's no Mike Patton-esque versatility on display or Robert Wyatt-styled explorations of the potential of the human voice as an instrument in its own right - and for that matter, the music doesn't offer any major departures from prog rock as usual. However, what David does offer is a mixture of confidence and genuine emotional conviction. Rarely have I believed that a singer in prog has believed in the words he's singing to the extent I believe when Benoit David sings, despite some occasional Yes-esque obscurity. I don't always know what he's getting at but he always communicates what he feels - that's an achievement in itself, and I can see why he was seen as a safe pair of hands for Yes.