All of the game's music was recorded with a live jazz band, orchestra, singers, and the Barbershop Quartet, Shoptimus Prime. You better believe it's awesome!
Base game:
- "Don't Deal with the Devil"
, the Expository Theme Tune by the barbershop quartet, is short but sweet and provides a great atmosphere for the game. - "Elder Kettle" is a beautiful, nostalgia-fueling waltz tune played by the game's orchestra that sounds just like something out of a classic Disney movie.
- "Victory Tune" is probably the song that players look forward to hearing the most. With its upbeat brass tune, this song is very rewarding to listen to after taking several attempts to beat a boss, or even on its own.
- "Die House" is notable for actually being sung. With King Dice's threatening voice and lyrics, it makes a great, and catchy, Villain Song for him. Did we mention that the singer is a woman? Talk about vocal range! It's also one of the most popular songs with the fanbase, receiving many fanmade remixes and covers. There's also the instrumental version, "All Bets Are Off", which plays in cutscenes featuring King Dice, and is no less catchy than the vocal version.
- Forest Follies is a frantic and fun ragtime piano piece that fits great with the game's aesthetic, sounding very much like something you'll hear in a old silent film. This also applies to the other tracks in the Run-and-Gun levels, which follow the same general idea.
- "Botanic Panic" is among the first, if not the first, boss themes you'll hear and is infectiously catchy. Who would have thought that a fight with sentient vegetables would be so intense? Well, this song helps that feeling, along with being a great piece on its own.
- "Ruse of an Ooze" is the second boss theme and is just as catchy as "Botanic Panic". The piano emotes the fast pace of Goopy's fight with his first and second phases, but when the trumpet solo plays, you are finally greeted by his gravestone, which makes it funnier yet slightly epic.
- "Clip Joint Calamity" was one of the first stage themes debuted at length, which caused many to assume that such a red-hot tune had to be the game's main theme.
- "Floral Fury" is a great boss theme. The Brazillian-inspired percussion blends really well with the adrenaline-pumping brass section. It's the most intense samba you'll ever hear for this flowery thug music. The theme became such a fan favorite that it was chosen to represent Cuphead in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- "Sugarland Shimmy"'s drums add to the punchiness of the song.
- "Carnival Kerfuffle" is catchy with its fun-sounding brass and piano sections. It captures the feel of an amusement park booming at night really well.
- The parts of "Aviary Action" fit incredibly well with the different parts of Wally Warbles' boss fight. By the time he falls out of his birdhouse and his son Willy appears, you're treated to a sample of Ride of the Valkyries, and it only ramps up from there once the clarinet comes out.
- "Pyramid Peril" fits the Egyptian/Arabic feel, but as the song progresses it gets a little creepier, and halfway through it makes a tonal shift and gets faster and crazier than ever. All through each phase Djimmi the Great goes through.
- "Funfair Fever" is one of the most upbeat and fun songs in the game. The ragtime piano section, which is often compared to the Athletic theme from Super Mario World, is perhaps the best part.
- Although "Coin-Op Bop" didn't make it into the final game, being the background track for the scrapped arcade in World 2, it's still amazing. It starts out as a cheery piano theme, but then gets darker... and as it gets darker it gets faster until it's pure unbridled insanity. Really captures the feeling of time running out while playing a stressful minigame.
- "Shootin n' Lootin" is a fast-paced tune with an upbeat, adventurous sound. It really gets you in a pirate-y mood!
- It's not hard to see why "Junkyard Jive" was the music for the E3 2014 trailer. Menacing and fitting for the mad scientist and robot you're fighting, and much like Pyramid Peril, there's a midway tonal shift, after which the song becomes more intense and crazy than ever before.
- "Dramatic Fanatic" stands out from most of the rest of the score for its use of tap dancing as an instrument, with some fun tap solos taking place late in the track.
- The sax in "Murine Corps" gives the track a distinct, toe-tapping feel, perfect for fighting the goofy Breather Boss Werner Werman. While the battle is relatively short so the entire track is rarely heard, the baritone sax coming out at the end manages to actually sound imposing.
- The sax and drums in "High Seas Hi-Jinx" fit Cala Maria's fight perfectly. Not only does the fast pace match the adrenaline rush that comes with dodging her attacks, but there's the escalation of intensity around the same time she transforms into a gorgon, with a harmonic piano tune joining in shortly afterwards.
- "Railroad Wrath" is a fast-paced, saxophone-heavy tune that weds the simultaneous railroad and Halloween themes of the Phantom Express perfectly.
- "Inkwell Hell" is surprisingly ominous compared to other songs in the game. It serves as a great buildup to the last two bosses and would fit right in as an opening to a Bond flick.
- "The King's Court" is featured in many trailers and ads for the game, and with good reason. It's a great, adrenaline-pumping battle theme that also serves as a slight Boss Remix of "Die House".
- "Admission to Perdition" is the music heard in the first phase of the Devil's battle, and boy, is it awesome! It starts out with a unique melody before it begins to reprise the melodies from other battle themes heard throughout the game, and it's awesome how well they all work together. And toward the end, the music begins its madness and starts descending downward while its tempo is getting slower, indicating that the Devil literally jumps out of his skin and jumps down a hole, with you following him down into the cavernous pit of hell, which is where the real final battle will be imminent...
- "One Hell of a Time" is great battle music for the Devil's terrifying final form, being fast-paced and tense yet catchy.
- "Winner Takes All" is a joyful song that is perfect for the Golden Ending. Made perhaps even better by the cheering sounds heard when it plays in the game itself.
- "Closing Credits" is a Triumphant Reprise of "Shootin n' Lootin". It's a grand tune where the whole band really shows off. Special mention goes to the short singing section, where Alana Bridgewater goes full-on Cab Calloway, and the barbershop quartet pops back in for a few chords. The tap dancer makes a comeback too.
The Delicious Last Course:
- "The Delicious Last Course" introduces the DLC in the style of a 1920s band—replacing the original game's barbershop quartet with a female trio in the style of The Andrews Sisters. At the Game Awards 2021, they even performed it live!
- The theme song for "Inkwell Isle Four" is a swinging gypsy jazz piece with guitar and violin work that wouldn't be out of place in a Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelli collaboration album.
- "Gnome Way Out" is wacky and silly with guitar and tuba, but still manages to convey a sense of danger.
- "Snow Cult Scuffle", Mortimer Freeze's theme, is a wonderful combination of wintry instruments and samba percussion that's mysterious and whimsical, but also threatening.
- "Bootlegger Boogie" is practically a distillation of Cuphead's jazziness. Bonus points for the scat singing by Alana Bridgewater herself!
- "High Noon Hoopla" is a frenetic, chaotic piece that shifts frantically between major and minor keys. Unlike most of the soundtrack, which takes cues from big band jazz, it's more inspired by Gene Autry and Spaghetti Western soundtracks. It also makes good use of several instruments that are usually absent from Cuphead music, such as fiddle, electric guitar (including lap steel), coconut "hoof" percussion, and yodeling.
- "Doggone Dogfight" is jazzy, yet the deep brass conveys a sort of seriousness to it, perfect for a fight against an air force.
- "High Noon Hoopla"'s just one example of Delicious Last Course's varied usage of non-jazzy instruments — perhaps the most predominant examples (besides the final boss theme) are the two tracks used for the fights on the King's Leap.
- The one used for the first four bosses, "Bourree On The Board", still has a very jazzy melody, features a trumpet about a minute in, and also has a xylophone as one of the backing instruments, but is otherwise dominated by more traditionally orchestral instruments, including a timpani drum, violins, violas, a harpsichord, and a horn. The best part is that there are four separate versions with significant differences in musical emphasis (Pawns specialize in xylophone, the Knight's version mains stringed violins and guitars, the Bishop has an acoustic guitar solo, and the Rook emphasizes heavy brass).
- When you reach the final battle against the Queen, a fittingly grander, faster-paced arrangement by the name of "The Queen's Riguadon" plays instead, which basically abandons jazz instruments altogether, featuring the same instruments as the original song, but now with more pronounced percussion and the main body of the track being played primarily by orchestral brass and string instruments. There's one other thing both tracks share: a full-on choir as one last crescendo to punctuate your grand victory!
- The one used for the first four bosses, "Bourree On The Board"
- "Baking the Wondertart", Cuphead's answer to "Revelation 13:1" or "Dancing Mad", is an epic, multi-tiered battle theme that puts The Devil's playfulness to shame. Take a solid foundation of Creepy Jazz Music, then liberally sprinkle with the grandeur of a Nobuo Uematsu Final Boss theme, including a dash of Latin and pipe organ. Mix well, bake, and serve it hot.
- "One Hell of a Dream", the music for the secret Dream Devil fight, is completely different from basically every other boss theme in Cuphead — instead of a bombastic jazz piece, it's a slow, quiet, and ominous remix of "Admission to Perdition" that doesn't sound much like a boss theme at all. Despite this, it's the perfect accompaniment for the nightmarish Mind Screw that is the secret boss.
- "A Chef's Coda", which plays during the first part of the credits, is a jolly ragtime tune sung by Chef Saltbaker's great baritone voice. It describes his Heel Realization and redemption, as he does community service and actually becomes a good-natured chef for real.
- The second credits theme, "The Key Ingredients" is another multi-tiered track; it starts off with a short continuation of "A Chef's Coda", transitions into a reprise of "Don't Deal with the Devil" with different lyrics that mention the DLC's events, then goes into a splendid big band remix of that tune, and finally ends on a whimsical yet grand orchestral tune that wouldn't sound out of place in the credits of a Disney movie. It's the perfect sendoff to Cuphead and his pals' adventures.
