Caroline Polachek – On The Beach (from DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH)

Caroline Polachek emerges with ‘On The Beach’, a woozy meditation that transforms eight years of dormant creativity into the perfect soundtrack for the digital apocalypse. Created for Hideo Kojima’s ‘Death Stranding 2: On The Beach’, it began as one of Polachek’s earliest experiments with Danny L Harle—deemed “too alien and industrial, almost too evil” for her 2019 album ‘Pang’—and found its ideal home in Kojima’s post-apocalyptic landscape.

The track showcases Polachek’s operatic range while subjecting her vocals to robotic filtration, creating an uncanny valley effect that matches perfectly the game’s themes of connection and isolation. Co-produced with Harle and co-written with Kojima himself, the song layers expansive vocals over distorted metallic synths and steady battle drums, building toward moments of exalted bliss that quickly dissipate, much like hope in a dying world.

The origin story reads like modern folklore: Kojima discovered Polachek’s music, posted about it on Instagram, received a DM, met in Paris, and birthed this collaboration. Such is the power of social media serendipity in 2025. Polachek joins an illustrious soundtrack lineage that includes Woodkid, CHVRCHES, and Bring Me The Horizon, cementing Death Stranding’s reputation for bold musical curation.