Since I finished my GCSE exams at the end of June, I have had lots of time to discover various artists and "expand my musical horizons" as it were. At the beginning I became obsessed with Elliott Smith, I couldn't believe I hadn't found his music for so long! The first slightly apprehensive purchase was XO, and after 2 plays I realised I had a second favourite artist at last after Radiohead. After playing that around 30 time and loving every second (my favourite track currently being "tomorrow tomorrow") I bought Either/Or. Although XO has better production, Either/Or is so much more breathtaking, special and personal, with "Say Yes" perfectly capturing the way I was feeling at the time. I was less impressed by Figure 8, although it is a very fine album containing many excellent tracks.My Elliott Smith obsession lasted around 1.5 months where I listened to very little else, and that brought me to August. Here, I discovered the HMV "1001 albums you must hear before you die", featuring classic albums from 1955-2005 at reduced prices. From this sale I bought Neil Young's "After the Gold rush" which I almost instantly loved. Achingly sad and beautiful his bitter-sweet (also an adjective perfectly capturing Elliott Smith's back-catalogue) songs just long to be heard again and again and again. In this period I also discovered the joys of My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless", after not getting it for ages (in order to fully appreciate it it must be played LOUD), and I loved the ethereal, dreamy nature of the album created by the dense layers of guitar samples.More recently I bought Belle and Sebastian's "If you're feeling sinister" from the same HMV sale, and I just love it. Such subtle "twee pop" melodies, heart-felt singing with sinister lyrics, I hadn't been so excited about an album since Radiohead's "OK Computer".Even more recently (today) I discovered how much I like Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation". I had brought the album several months ago, but had been put off listening to it due to it's reputed "experimental" nature. I shouldn't have waited so long, this is very exciting music. I can't really write much about the album at present, have only heard it properly once but I know I'm going to love it.Now to try and get into Can's "Tago Mago"...