4AD Records Vinyl, CDs & Cassettes

Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent started 4AD in London in 1979 out of the offices of Beggars Banquet Records, and what they built over the following two decades became one of the most distinctive and influential catalogs in independent music history. The label had a sound, or more accurately, an atmosphere, something dark and beautiful and carefully constructed, and it had a look to match, thanks to designer Vaughan Oliver, whose artwork for 4AD releases was as recognizable as the music itself.

The early roster immediately announced the label's sensibility. Bauhaus launched Gothic rock here. The Birthday Party, Nick Cave's first band, brought a feral intensity that nobody else was approaching. Cocteau Twins created something essentially untranslatable, ethereal, and layered, and completely their own. Dead Can Dance. Modern English. This Mortal Coil, Watts-Russell's own shifting project that brought 4AD artists together and produced some of the most haunting records of the era.

The label expanded into American indie in the late Eighties, signing Throwing Muses and then the Pixies, whose catalog here remains foundational to essentially everything that happened in alternative rock in the decade that followed. The Breeders. Belly.

The current 4AD carries that legacy forward with a roster that includes Big Thief, whose run of records has made them one of the most critically serious bands in contemporary indie rock. The National built their career under this roof. Bon Iver. Grimes. The label has never stopped finding artists whose work earns the attention it demands.