1983 is the watershed year for 4AD, when they transition fully from a post-punk label into something much stranger and something that people will still obsess about decades later.
Most important commercially (and musically, for that matter) are the Cocteau Twins releases. The Peppermint Pig single was a major step away from their Garlands sound, and with the Head Over Heels album and the Sunburst and Snowblind EP later that year, everybody started paying attention. Like seriously.
Perhaps symbolically, 4AD releases two five song compilation EPs, saying a final goodbye to Bauhaus and The Birthday Party (and everybody involved with those bands), as well as a five song compilation EP from Modern English, who would leave them the next year.
And look at those covers. Vaughan Oliver/23 Envelope is getting in full swing with those gorgeous typographical covers to the Xmal Deutschland releases, and those vague Cocteau Twins covers, and, erm, the “horses fucking” Colourbox EP, which is, of course, everybody’s favourite.
Most puzzling release of the year: The second version of Breakdown/Tarantula. I wonder what the story behind that was… were Colourbox just really dissatisfied with the first version which was released half a year earlier?
[Edit: I’ve been notified that the first four tracks (by The Birthday Party) aren’t available in some regions. Rights issues? (Some of the tracks on the full version are licensed from Mute Records.) Blocked because of the Swastikas on the cover artwork? I don’t know.]
1983
 |  BAD301The Birthday Party — The Bad Seed Sonnys Burning, Wild World, Fears Of The Gun, Deep In The Woods |
 |   CAD302Xmal Deutschland — Fetisch Qual, Geheimnis, Young Man, In Der Nacht, Orient, Hand In Hand, Kaempfen, Danthem, Boomerang, Stummes Kind |
 |   AD303Cocteau Twins — Peppermint Pig Peppermint Pig, Laughlines, Hazel |
 | AD304 Colourbox — Breakdown Breakdown, Tarantula |
 | BAD305 Xmal Deutschland — Qual Qual, Zeit, Sehnsucht |
 | BAD306 Modern English — Gathering Dust Smiles And Laughter, Mesh & Lace, Gathering Dust, Swans On Glass, Home |
 | BAD307 The Birthday Party — The Friend Catcher The Friend Catcher, Release The Bats, Blast Off, Mr. Clarinet, Happy Birthday |
 | CAD308 The Wolfgang Press — The Burden Of Mules Lisa (The Passion), Prostitute I, The Burden Of Mules, Compleate And Utter, Prostitute II, Slow As A Child, Journalists, Give It Back, On The Hill |
 | AD309 Modern English — Someone’s Calling Someone’s Calling, Life In The Gladhouse |
 | BAD310 This Mortal Coil — Sixteen Days – Gathering Dust Sixteen Days – Gathering Dust, Song to the Siren, Sixteen Days Reprise |
 | AD311 Xmal Deutschland — Incubus Succubus II Incubus Succubus II, Vito |
 | BAD312 Bauhaus — 4.A.D Dark Enties, Untitled, Terror Couple Kill Colonel, Scopes, Rosegarden Funeral of Sores |
 |  CAD313Cocteau Twins — Head over Heels When Mama Was Moth, Five Ten Fiftyfold, Sugar Hiccup, In Our Angelhood, Glass Candle Grenades, In The Gold Dust Rush, The Tinderbox (Of A Heart), Multifoiled, My Love Parmour, Musette And Drums |
 | BAD314 Cocteau Twins — Sunburst And Snowblind Sugar Hiccup, Flagstones, Hitherto, Because Of The Whirl-Jack |
 | MAD315 Colourbox — Colourbox Shotgun, Keep On Pushing, Nation, Justice |
This post is part of the chronological look at all 4AD releases, year by year.