8. My Morning Jacket
The Magical X-Factor Magic. There really is no other word for it. Magic. And electricity. My Morning Jacket shows are nothing short of spellbinding. Whether they're building luminescent sculptures of sound with their sprawling guitar solos; causing grown men to cry into their pints with their solid gold acoustic confessionals or baffling and enthralling in equal measure with their nods to Prince and black metal, there'll always be one particular factor of My Morning Jacket that demands your fear, awe and respect: The soaring vocals of Jim James. Immensely powerful on record, his voice is even more potent live. Coupled with his guitar heroics and his fondness for capes, he comes across as a more fun, more alien incarnation of Neil Young. In the tongue-in-cheek sleeve notes to their incredible Okonokos double live album, their music is described variously as space rock, country rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock and experimental rock. The joke is that they dabble in so many different sounds, forms and genres that what was once a remarkable yet straight-edged alt-country band are becoming increasingly difficult to classify. That's why I rely upon a catch-all term for their sound: Magic.
7. Bjork
The Magical X-Factor Adventure. With this list, I wanted to principally focus upon such acts as made themselves first known to us in the 21st century. I make strict allowances, though, for the sort of restlessly creative musicians for whom every subsequent album and tour is a chance to try something bold, brave and exciting. Bjork is such a musician. Despite having operated as a solo artist since 1993, I'll bet that not even her long-term fans know what to expect from her these days. Bjork's live shows are unpredictable. She'll experiment with different arrangements and
the sort of instruments that few other musicians even knew existed let alone considered using onstage. The Volta tour saw her reinterpreting her back catalogue with an all-female brass section that doubled as a choir; whilst during her Biophilia shows, she's explored the musical potential of the
Van Der Graaf Generator. If you've followed Bjork's career for even a single album cycle, you'll already feel as though you can depend upon her to always be fascinating and adventurous where others might instead prefer to rest on the comfortable and familiar. What other artist operating in their third or fourth decade as a musician would consider something so
wonderfully insane sounding as her imminent plans for a live R Kelly collaboration?