“4AD” Archives

Subscribers can listen to a selection of songs from one of the greatest record labels of all time.

The influential designer’s artwork graced albums by Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Pixies, and This Mortal Coil.

The classic and influential 4AD project will be reissued this October on CD and deluxe vinyl.

Lush’s catalog will be reissued prior to their first gig in two decades.

For all of its artificiality, there’s very little that’s cold, clinical, or merely “academic” about Platform.

Also: Tired of introverts, think before you post kid photos, essential 4AD songs, outer space, learning from Satanists, Spirited Away’s beauty, and secular responses to sacred art.

A tribute to an old computer, the five long tracks that make up this disc are elegiac and gorgeous.

You must either acquiesce to Scott Walker’s latest or just throw the whole thing away and move onto something safer.

You get the feeling you could see entire seasons pass with this record on the changer, falling in and out of love and hate as it plays on.

Piano Magic picks up right where This Mortal Coil left off.

Lush always focused more on the ‘pop’ side of the ‘dreampop’ equation.

Haunting soundscapes that conjure up misty beaches, abandoned lighthouses, and hulking shipwrecks.

4 discs might seem like a little much for any band, but given Dead Can Dance’s diverse, extensive catalog, it feels just about right.

Mojave 3 has gone for a starker acoustic sound that’s stripped down, sparse, and surprisingly more inviting.

Sleeps with the Fishes is adept at taking what should be morose music and converts it into something resplendent.

Throws a wrench into the idea that 4AD will forever be consigned to releasing ethereal female-fronted groups.