New Mystery Live Album

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I picked up this new live Mystery record and have been enjoying it.
I think I had one of the Mystery records before Benoit David joined Yes. One he joined Yes I could not help but notice how he did not sound a whole lot like Jon Anderson, I think that distracted me from just appreciating him for his own voice.
On FFH it seemed to me he held back his performance a bit, perhaps being cautious around the "stars" of the band. Too bad, he is a very good singer, and sounds much better when singing with his own voice, and not trying to fit his voice around the famous Yes material.

Mystery has some excellent players - very solid drums and guitar playing on this record. Two guitarists produce a lot of guitar harmonies.It is "proggy" enough, but very melodic and a bit heavier than modern day Yes.

This record sounds good - so good it seems there was a fair amount of work done on the live recording to polish it up. But I don't mind, the result is nice and still the genuine energy of the gig comes through.

I hope Benoit has not done damage beyond repair to his pipes after singing the Yes tunes at all those Yes gigs. I have no idea what he is doing now, but I think he's a very good singer and would like to see him in a band.

Looks as if they have a good amount of video as well, hopefully there will be a DVD at some point.

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I'll have to check it out. My wife is a big fan of Benoit, however, she didn't recognize his voice singing in what I presume is his natural register. From his "press release", it seems that Benoit is a consummate pro/gentleman. Yes, I would hope that he doesn't hang it up.

On that note, I've been switching back and forth from FFH and Heaven and Earth (I'm sold, seriously impressed, by the first two tracks--and meeting the ever so humble Jon D. twice); wonderful merits to both, seriously, IMHO.

I think that H&E has very, very tasteful Steve Howe work, restrained Squire, artful Downes without being the frenzy of extraneous notes from the otherwise very talented and overly-technically proficient RW. More notes does not mean "better".

FFH was Trevor and Geoff. H&E is primarily JD with artful, understated surroundings. More is not better, it is simply more.

However, I'd be very happy with another new recording with JD.

Hows that for tangent?