WaterTower Music released Adult Swim’s The Elephant Soundtrack on July 7, 2026. Moreover, the 23-track album features music from all three parts of the experimental animated film project.
Keep reading to learn more about the album and where you can get it.
Adult Swim Unleashed The Elephant Soundtrack Upon the World
What happens when your production team has no clue what they’re doing? Adult Swim wanted to find out. So, they created The Elephant. It’s an animated short film created by three different teams that deliberately knew nothing about what the others were doing. It’s basically the animated film equivalent of the exquisite corpse game.
That design philosophy extended to every aspect of the film’s production, including the soundtrack. As a result, three composer groups wrote the film’s music, which was divided into three parts:
- Firstly, Dolphin Hyperspace handled Act 1.
- Secondly, Jeff Liu, Aivi, and Surasshu wrote Act 2.
- Finally, The Blasting Company wrote Act 3.
Now, while each act was made separately, you don’t have to listen to them in pieces. That’s because Adult Swim partnered up with WaterTower Music to release the complete The Elephant Soundtrack digitally as a single album. As a result, you can find it on most music apps, including those listed in my collector’s guide below.
What is Adult Swim’s The Elephant
As I have noted, Adult Swim’s The Elephant is an experimental animated short film consisting of three acts. Furthermore, each act was produced separately, without the others’ knowledge, to create a collaborative surprise that would ultimately merge into a single, unexpected story.
Written and produced by Adventure Time’s Pendleton Ward, Act 1 follows the misadventures of mysterious, featureless beings as they harvest a mechanical body. That leads to one of the pieces becoming its own separate character.
Ian Jones-Quartey of OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes gave us Act 2, along with Steven Universe’s Rebecca Sugar. The act follows the “Music Button” as he plays music for a crowd, but he feels the pressure to never stop.
Finally, Patrick McHale of Over the Garden Wall worked on Act 3. It follows a wandering soul as he wakes up in various bodies across time and space before settling down in a robot named Screeno.
Moreover, it’s the brainchild of Jack Pendarvis and Kent Osborne, whose previous collaborations include Adventure Time. The duo first announced the project at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Festival, noting that it would star the voice talents of Maria Bamford, SungWon Cho and Jordan Jensen. Now, it’s available on video-on-demand after premiering on Adult Swim last December.
A Review of The Elephant Soundtrack
Now, going into the music, I didn’t expect much. That’s because disjointed music albums have existed since compilation albums were a thing. These albums are disjointed by design since their music usually comes from unrelated sources. That’s doubly true for most film soundtracks, since they often use pre-existing third-party tracks.
So, I expected The Elephant Soundtrack to be more of the same. It might be good or bad, but its strange production design wouldn’t affect it much.
That said, it is decent music for adult animation. It sounds a bit weird, but you expect that from Adult Swim. They’re known for their offbeat stuff, and this album is just more of it. It’s an acquired taste for sure, but if you like AS’s style, the soundtrack should be right up your alley.
Please note that it’s all techno. Everything has an electronic texture, which amplifies the already ambient weirdness of the whole thing. Luckily, that works to the soundtrack’s favor. It feels like a genuine electronic music album. You could conceivably hear this music in a dance club, for instance.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t bode well for it as a soundtrack. There’s nothing here that screams watch this film for more. In other words, it works too well as a standalone album.
Therefore, you should get it only if you enjoy electronic music or want to complete your Adult Swim music collection. Otherwise, let The Elephant Soundtrack be.
Collector’s Guide: The Elephant Soundtrack
Album Details
- Title: Adult Swim’s The Elephant (Original Television Soundtrack)
- Release Date: July 7, 2026
- Label: WaterTower Music
- Composers: Dolphin Hyperspace, The Blasting Company, Jeff Liu, Aivi, & Surasshu
- Format:
- Track Count: 23
- Runtime: 20 minutes, 18 seconds
- Highlights: experimental album, composers worked separately
Track Listing
- Factory Music / Universe Awe / ACTION Little Guys (feat. Logan Kane & Nicole McCabe) – Dolphin Hyperspace (0:40)
- Blissed Out Love for New Body / Added Static (feat. Logan Kane & Nicole McCabe) – Dolphin Hyperspace (0:31)
- MEOW RESCUE VIBE ACTION (feat. Logan Kane & Nicole McCabe) – Dolphin Hyperspace (0:32)
- Chill Driving Music (feat. Logan Kane & Nicole McCabe) – Dolphin Hyperspace (1:23)
- Video Game Music (feat. Logan Kane & Nicole McCabe) – Dolphin Hyperspace (0:58)
- A SAFE CAVE / Heartbeat Rising (feat. Logan Kane & Nicole McCabe) – Dolphin Hyperspace (1:58)
- The Middle / Push It – Aivi & Surasshu (0:34)
- Music Button – Jeff Liu (1:17)
- I Had to Know More / The Library – Aivi & Surasshu (0:57)
- The Unsettling Truth – Aivi & Surasshu (1:02)
- This Was Just…The Middle – Jeff Liu & Aivi & Surasshu (1:02)
- I Wish I May – The Blasting Company (0:31)
- Baby Tooth – The Blasting Company (0:32)
- (We All Scream for) Sax Cream – The Blasting Company (0:36)
- Laser Death Colosseum The Blasting Company (0:34)
- Birth of Screeno – The Blasting Company (0:30)
- First Impressions – The Blasting Company (0:40)
- Television Friends – The Blasting Company (1:07)
- It Came Upon a Midnight Clear – The Blasting Company (1:19)
- Lights on Central Park – The Blasting Company (1:37)
- Chant of the Archons – The Blasting Company (0:39)
- Zō (feat. Kumachan Seal) – The Blasting Company (0:51)
- Music Button (Reprise) [feat. Logan Kane & Nicole McCabe] [Bonus Track] – Dolphin Hyperspace (0:32)
Where to Listen
Final Thoughts
To conclude, there are experimental albums, and then there’s The Elephant Soundtrack. Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s a good album on its own, but only on its own. That’s because the film’s quirky design philosophy doesn’t translate well to the music side of things.
However, that’s my opinion. What’s yours?
Post your thoughts in the comments below, then check out some of my other reviews.
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