Mazzy Star, clipping. and more contribute to a varied soundtrack to TV's Rick and Morty

The sheer commercial clout of film soundtracks demonstrates that they can be powerful works of art, launching their composers into the Grammy-laden, world-touring success of their pop star counterparts. But... cartoon soundtracks? By comparison to feature films, cartoons run on vignettes and flourishes, on Mickey-Mousing and comedy sing-a-longs that explicitly illustrate – rather than enhance - an episode's narrative. I can't deny that Family Guy's "Prom Night Dumpster Baby" is a fantastic swing parody, or South Park's "Gay Fish" is the best thing ever to piss Kanye West off, but who would choose to listen to these out of context?

The answer to this is probably 'the fans'. The serious fans. And no cartoon series has more serious fans than Rick and Morty, the Adult Swim original about an unstable mad scientist and his hapless idiot of a grandson. From a commercial perspective, releasing this record is a no brainer; Rick and Morty fans' buying power bought a discontinued McDonald's dipping sauce back to life – they're not going to sleep on this LP.

For all these reasons, that The Rick and Morty Soundtrack Album is actually pretty decent might seem a little surprising. The collection is made good by two things; the strength of musical direction on the show, and the versatility of composer Ryan Elder, who provided every ounce of original score.

First – the original stuff. Elder's comedy songs echo the loose, improvised feel of R&M's dialogue. The unpracticed-ness of everything – on "Flu Hatin' Rap" Elder spits an awkward freestyle where he forgets his MC name midway through – makes it feel more intimate, like jamming out with a hysterical friend and their enviable collection of synthesizers. Elder's production elevates some tracks, particularly instrumentals, from Weird Al-level japes to something you could legitimately stick on at a party; the RickDance is a total jam, and tracks Jerry's Rick and Unity Says Goodbye are rich slices of trip-hop that recall Tycho's Dive.

Then there are seven songs here Elder didn't pen, most of which were tied to pivotal moments in the show. Mazzy Star's languid "Look Down From the Bridge" underscores Morty's first real existential crisis, after he's forced to bury a version of himself in his own backyard; Blonde Redhead's eerie, wordless "For the Damaged Coda" closes an episode where we discover Evil Morty is poised to overthrow civilisation. Whilst sublime grunge throwbacks dominate - perhaps a nod to creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland's own record collections - a standout has to be 2014's "Do You Feel It?" by Chaos Chaos. This song - which accompanies Rick's attempted suicide in series two - is a weappns-grade heartbreaker, managing to wrap a moment that had the potential to misfire in a very real sense of tragedy and revelation. Disconnected from the show's context – and arguably back to their original – these tracks hang together with a shared sense of pathos, the early 90s selections especially benefiting from an unexpected second chance to shine.

Alongside the back-catalogue selections, we have two diametrically-opposed 'inspired by the show' exclusives. Chad Vangaalen's spacey ode "Stuttering Light" is less recognisable as a dedication; a slightly underwhelming track which – sonically and lyrically – may have been a left-over from this 2017 album Light Information. By comparison, clipping.'s "Stab Him In the Throat" goes hard on association, managing to rhyme 'the whip' with Pickle Rick whilst remaining level 10 aggro. clipping. are a jewel in Sub Pop's crown, and the fact they were able to sample both the soundtrack and the dialogue of Rick and Morty without losing their intimidating, club-smashing sound is a testament to their brilliance.

The only real downside here is exposition. Whilst the original score and selected works feel quite separate from each other sonically, here they're mashed together, with songs about poop bleeding into Blonde Redhead. On TV, the erratic tonal shifts of Rick and Morty work; on record, not so much.

But then, we're back to, what is this album for? Whether Sub Pop and the show's creators had nothing more than dollar signs in their eyes, releasing this soundtrack will likely connect swathes of young, rabid fans with some of the best bands from Harmon and Roiland's youth - and a handful of fantastic current artists too. And maybe that's enough.