Did you know that in the actual game (as in: not the Soundtrack on Spotify), every time you restart a level (or die, which happens quite often) you get a different solo for the same song? That‘s because they recorded around 400 solos overall for all of the tracks. So, each track averages at four different solos you can check out. They just were like „well, we still habe these takes recorded… why throw them away?“ Just pretty impressive work overall.
There's a couple of layers going on here. Most of the time the music in any given game is going to be the same after so many retries. It can get boring real fast. Having the music chage up that much and often will keep you from getting bored or even irritated. My other theory is that since what you are listening to is different, then you might be able to change up your strategy if you keep failing. You obviously need to do that in order to win, but having a few cues where things are different might help that in a subconscious way.
as someone who didn't and doesn't plan to play the game (because I know I won't get far) that is super cool to find out! Thank you for sharing that fun fact :) The soundtrack is amazing!
Not only that but all the tracks keep going when you restart. Where in most games the song would start from the beginning every time. So you get to hear the entire track as you play through many tries.
seeing him just riff off of the track he's never even heard before and being able to keep up and make it sound seamless with the rest of the song is truly the reason why i love jazz so much
@@Stevie-J "It's clear from the way he explains things in this video that he doesn't know a single thing about the history of sound design in video games." Hey he never claimed he does and you don't have to be a prick about it. Why don't you recommend other great music and tell us what we're missing instead of judging others like an elitist ;)
@@Stevie-J "I was trying to be nice about helping to get people to see that." Dude, you were NOT trying to be nice, lmao. You just built an argument predicated on your own interpretation of this dude's personal knowledge, and the absolutely bonkers assumption that anyone who studies music is well-versed in the history of video game soundtracks. Quit projecting your own biases and insecurities on others and get your utterly pathetic self out of here mate...
It's not just live music in a game, it's live music in an Indie Game by people who had never really made a full game before. Pretty impressive how all-out they went on every detail of Cuphead. Everything was also inked and painted by hand for instance. Edit: THE ANIMATION WAS HAND DRAWN AND INKED, THE BACKGROUNDS WERE HAND PAINTED, SURE THE ANIMATION WAS COLORED DIGITALLY I DON'T CARE ITS STILL A LOT OF HAND DONE WORK DONT @ ME
@@jakeisthedoctor2308 nah dude, all the frames were inked by hand by Maja Moldenhaur. They colored them digitally, because as you said about the inks, there's little difference between flat cells and flat digital color, but the inks were done by hand. And also the backgrounds were painted traditionally.
Nah, pretty sure they weren't new to making video games. A new company, sure, but the people were experienced from other parts of the industry. Not like it was just a bunch of non-game developers and non-artists who came out of nowhere.
@@glowerworm I think maybe they had like tinkered in their own free time, and Ryan was a graphic designer with like web/mobile/UX experience but as far as I know they never released anything. And while Maja did a bunch of art and I'm sure the bros did like sketches and stuff, all the animation was by animators they hired
Slightly off-topic: can you believe that was hand animated!? They could've gotten away with just digitally emulating that old cartoon look but they went the extra mile and I think that's super impressive. Take a look at music from Made In Abyss, please! Kevin Penkin is an absolute unit!
they actually hand drew the majority of it and all of the fine details were fixed later on a computer. they saved hours by drawing characters almost close to done but not perfect and then making the final additions on a software. still absolutely insane they did that though
Hand-drawn frame-by-frame art a la early Mickey Mouse, dope-ass big band music, old-school sidescrolling platforming bullet hell chaos... Cuphead was dope. It made me very angry when I played it, but goddamn it's a great example of Game as Art.
I didn't like the intro a cappella, though. I hear what they're trying to do, but it's very, very obvious to my ears that it's modern collegiate barbershop. They were spoiled with great singers in the real early cartoons. Shoptimus Prime are fine, but they're not Cab Calloway... or the choirs in Disney's 50s films, which I guess they're more shooting for.
It is damn good game, but I would not count it as Art. Just gaming as entertainment medium perfected. Games which count as Art are way rarer than what Cuphead represents. Ico and Journey are Art in gaming. Sands of Time-trilogy in Prince of Persia also achieves that status as a whole.
@@vksasdgaming9472 Fair! I'm super happy to agree to disagree. Interesting though, I fully agree Ico and Journey were Art games, I'd extend that to Shadow of the Colossus and Flower too. Prince of Persia surprised me tho! I always thought of the series as Tomb Raider meets orientalism but I also was pretty young when I played
@@TsiSiFa List of games which are Art is way longer than what I mentioned and subject to debate. Original Prince of Persia was Jordan Mechner's expansion of Karateka. Interestingly that game (Karateka) also counts as Art because of it's very advanced and skillful storytelling with very primitive gaming technology and use of rotoscoping. Sands of Time-trilogy is Art because of it's very robust, thematically cohesive story ending with encounter with Jungian Shadow and becoming a full circle. It also was first game to place heavy, acrobatic emphasis on parkour-elements. Chrono Trigger and Planescape_: Torment also count as Art because they perfect their subgenres.
Damn I was really hoping he’d look into Railroad wrath which is arguably my favorite track in the entire game. You’re fighting a train so it uses chords that contain the dissonance associated with a train horn. Yet it’s still a fantastic big band groovy track which fits PERFECTLY for the boss fight of fighting a haunted train. *chefs kiss*
I've been listening to the entire 3-hr thing over and over for the past two weeks. Currently, Perilous Piers is my favorite simply for how inanely difficult it is to play
I think "Ruse of an Ooze" is heavily underatted probably due to the boss being the easiest in the game. Also the unreleased Airship boss has an amazing theme. I think the level was going to be like a tutorial of sorts having a boss which can only be killed with parries and other mini bosses like clams
The bit of squeaking percussion in the beginning of floral fury is from a South American drum called the cuica, also known as the monkey drum. It’s probably most well known for creating that distinct noise for the Gorons in the Legend of Zelda series
This game brings me back to old school Tom and Jerry when the cartoon hinged on the music to tell the story. Specifically the ones produced by Fred Quimby.
The part at the end really hit home for me. If not for cuphead I wouldn’t be watching this channel or even into music at all. It’s cuphead that convinced me that music is worthwhile and that realization is probably the best thing that has happened to me in my life.
The implementation in game is especially interesting, for the solos in particular there were several different musicians recorded playing a solo over the same section which is then randomly picked from in-game. Meaning that each time you restart the boss you will hear a different version of the music
Not true. They tried this and it didn't pan out very well, so all the in game versions of the tracks are what you will always hear in game, and the soundtrack release just has different solos. Some of the in game tracks and soundtrack tracks share the same solos
Big Band was the popular music for the era Cupheads represents. So it all works absolutely perfect. But the game is really hard, so no joke. They did so well with this soundtrack.
honestly, my favorite parts of the soundtrack are the barbershop quartets that appear. i love that type of harmony-focused vocal performance. in case you wanted to know, the group that performed the barbershop pieces in the game are called 'Shoptimus Prime
I'd love to see Charles take a deep dive into Keiichi Okabe's score for Nier: Automata and Nier: Replicant. The music engine in the game doesn't just play BGM, it dynamically fades in and fades out layers of the track to complement the player's actions and the surroundings. Perfect for a game about existentialism: what makes a given track? Is it the component melodies, vocals, percussion and bass lines? Is it each component, or one particular track? How much can you remove or change before it becomes no longer itself, or an entirely different song? In boss fights like the Simone fight, the music also responds to the actions of the player and the boss; how active a participant in the creation of the music does this make the player?
"If you fade out a part of the song and replace it with a part of another song, and you do that over and over again and again until every part of the song is changed, is it still the same song?"
@@Deadflower019 Also imo no, since the moment you did the first replacement you can already say that's either a remix or a mashup and not anymore the original song itself. By the end of it all you're just probably listening to a PACIL video or smth.
@sigmafun3880 wayyyyy harder, I got frustrated with cuphead as well but once you beat all the bosses once, it gets easier and easier even on expert. I'm watching someome beat the game but the bosses have 10x the health and it looks pretty fun/tortures lol
*12:31* My favorites have got to be the two final boss themes (Yes, this game has two separate, completely different tracks for a single boss. Absolute dedication, am I right?), especially Admission to Perdition. It's just a gigantic, amazingly executed fanservice to all the Cuphead music enjoyers. It brings back the best part of almost every single previous track in one of the most ethereal and absolutely almighty pieces of music to be ever created for any piece of media, _ever._
As an animator this is one of my favorite games. I'd love to see more of these kind of videos where you cover topics like music from games, movies and animations.
Little Nightmares 1 & 2 have incredible music too. My favorites are: -Togetherness I (Little Nightmares II) -Six's theme II (Little Nightmares) -A feeling for meat (Little Nightmares) -Lost in transmission (Little Nightmares II) -Claustrophobia (Little Nightmares II) -Lure of the maw (Little Nightmares) -Hypnosis (Little Nightmares) -Prison Toys (Little Nightmares) -Boots through the undergrowth (Little Nightmares II) -ArpWhistle (Little Nightmares II not propably in spotify)
The rhythm on this is actually a Samba rhythm (the type you’d head at carnaval). It’s not really considered latin though….. the composition itself however (the sounds and orchestration) is very latin indeed
@@WiseLittleOwl "Latin" is an umbrella term imposed onto all latin american countries and assumes there is an homogeneous culture they all share because they were colonized by "latin european" empires. But there really isn't such culture, and brazilians are the ones that get the worst part of it because even colonialism was vastly different there than what it was in spanish colonies. Even hispanoamerican countries are vastly different from each other and have their own distinctive music styles. Tango, milonga, cumbia, payada, candombe, murga, bolero, etc etc etc. But they all get thrown into the same bag because of that term. Imagine if you were to define a musical style as "European" instead of... say... Polka, for example. That's why a lot of people would prefer the styles to be recognised for what they actually are, instead of "latin music". In jazz things get a little muddled, because Americans got in contact with this cultures and styles mostly through "latino communities" (people from different latinamerican countries who migrated into USA and created their own communities with their own culture). So "latin jazz" is Its own thing and comes from those communities, not the latin american countries. It kinda works like what americans call "black culture", which is basically "culture from afro descendants living in USA".
Honestly, you need to record/stream a playthrough of this game. It can be very rage-inducing but also is so, so fun, and seeing your live reactions to the art and music would be amazing.
Grim Fandango is a classic adventure game that was remastered recently. It features some really jazzy tunes and awesome soundtrack by Peter McConnell which also got re-recorded alongside the remaster. A couple of amazing highlights in this soundtrack are Casino Calavera, Gambling Glottis and Swanky Maximino. This stuff is just A+!
Please PLEASE talk about the King Dice songs. I'm so so disappointed that you didn't cover em, cuz King Dice is literally meant to look and sound like Cab Callaway. And the overall aesthetic of Cuphead (in terms of art and music) is meant to take after the pre-colorizrd era of television, so like older Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat, the version of Tom & Jerry where they were two men instead of a cat and mouse, etc. Although, I don't really recommend playing it unless you're good with really difficult bullet hell types.
Waiting for the day Charles checks out the Jazzy Persona 5 soundtrack (I think it’s technically mostly acid-jazz?). Also didn’t even need notifications haha
Floral Fury is my favorite song to listen to because it's a samba which fills my Brazilian self with serotonin, but I'd say my favorite song in context is Dramatic Fanatic: the boss being fought in that level is a stage performed and the song features tapping! Also I love how the overworld themes get slowly less cheery as you venture from the Elder Kettle's house to Hell!
Every boss battle has a unique tune, and that’s the best part! Also, PLEASE check out the Delicious Last Course song that just came out, it’s absolutely stunning, and I’m sure you’ll love it!
This game legit has the most amazing soundtrack possibly of all time. I was hoping you would listen to more, because as great as Floral Fury is, there are some other absolute classics to discover. I would recommend Honeycomb Herald, Pyramid Peril and Railroad Wrath too. Railroad Wrath has this increeeeedible clarinet solo that is just so good
My favorite song from the game is threatenin zeppelin. I love all of the kind of organized chaos that goes on, it is more or less a simple minor blues but the way the backgrounds drown out the soloist occasionally with these simple chords makes there never a dull moment If you were to cover one, it would be fantastic if you played Railroad Wrath, Shootin n lootin, or , yes, threatenin zeppelin
You'd think that after a few years of being subbed that I'd get used to Charles nearly perfectly playing a song after hearing it twice, but of course not
4:10 "Erlkonig hat mir ein Leid getan" Who would have thought that Cuphead's OST would have so much in comon with Schubert. EDIT: also, Grim Fandang's music, you should check that out.
Has someone asked you to look at the music from Luca? Cause I would love your take on not only the soundtrack, but also that riff that's used throughout the original compositions and why it feels so warm and nostalgic. Such a great little riff that I would love to see analyzed. 🥰
I'm definitely late to the party here but the Hades soundtrack is fantastic; it's got Greek vibes while mixing in some rock elements. Darren Korb is a fantastic composer.
I love how Shootin’ and Lootin’s theme is given a completely different feel in the Closing Credits by primarily just slowing the tempo. But of course the vocals just knock it out of the park. I especially like the backup vocals. Alana Bridgewater’s solo is amazing too. I also love the barbershop quartets (Don’t Deal With The Devil, A Quick Break).
You should review the music from The Backyardigans, it has some excellent music, with episodes like "The Yeti", "International Super Spy", and every other episode really
My favourites from the soundtrack include, of course, Floral Fury that you've already checked out, but also King Dice's theme (the sung version), the Ribby & Croaks music, and the Root Pack music. But I think my absolute favourite is the xylophone-led track that plays over when you have a chat with Ms Chalice after defeating a mausoleum stage. If (when?) you do play it, there's a really awesome detail, in that a few fights can have completely different stages, depending on if you did something a particular way in the fight! And these secret other-versions all make complete sense according to the action used to get them, too. There are also the aforementioned mausoleum stages which are protecting an object rather than defeating a boss, and "Run n' Gun" stages which are more straightforward platforming, but the vast bulk of the game is boss fights (some of which are in an aeroplane, most of which aren't). It's very difficult! Be warned!
Watching stuff like this especially as a trumpet player really makes me miss playing music in school. I didn’t get to finish college bc of family problems but I always wanted to get back into music bc it was really a passion. Love you videos
The DLC dropped a month ago, and for as little content as it is, I'm impressed that they made it feel better in every aspect, in my opinion, than the base game. A review on that maybe? 👀
Would love to see you listen to the music of Over The Garden Wall. It’s a Cartoon Network miniseries from like 2014, with music inspired by 1800s folk type songs, so if you liked cuphead this one is a unique treat! It’s honestly one of my favorite scores ever.
I would absolutely LOVE a video explaining much of the rhythms and parts of latin music! It’s something I’ve always wanted to get into but there isn’t very much information that I could find online about it.
The song "Aviary Action" is definitely one of my faves, just because of how diverse it is. Multiple different sections each with a distinct feel, and not to mention the kick-ass clarinet featured throughout (and the reference to Ride of the Valkyries). The 17-bar interlude at 2:50 in the song specifically is my favorite section, partly because of the "four-on-the-floor" beat you talked about but also just because of how much it GROOVES.
Hey Charles! Could you probably have a go at the soundtrack of "Hollow Knight"? Total departure from this and perhaps other jazz, but it is one beautiful soundtrack through and through. Cheers
I’m glad to see stuff like this because it shows that you just really love music. I do the same thing when I hear horns, I start doing fingerings. And, yeah, Latin jazz is way fun!
Speaking of mixing the game and music, I wish you’d covered the Victory Tune! Beating a tough boss and being rewarded by those triumphant horns is one of the best victory screens of all time.
Look at this man's eyes when he's starting to play along at 6:42... You really felt the music and had a joyful moment and i felt that and it made my day!
I wish you could’ve listened to Dramatic fanatic! It’s a great example of having unique style of music integration! Tap dancing makes up a lot of the song!
Charles, you should do a video on the music from the game ABZU. It’s a beautiful, sublime, and expertly composed game and there’s so much music that could be broken down, I think you’d love it!
You should talk about the music from A Short Hike. The zones in the game blend together with different themes and tonal commonalities and it’s absolutely fantastic.
2:47 that is so true!!! I am only in high school but recently my band class played a song called “mambo” from west side story. It was a Latin dance song and that so was pretty hard to learn but by far my FAVORITE piece of music I have ever played so far! I can only to play a song similar to it in the future!
FINALLY YOU CHECKED OUT CUPHEADS MUSIC!!! IM SO HAPPYY! Edit: okay I just finished the video, and I gotta say I really love how you analyze everything! Sorry I was way to excited when I first commented haha! Great video as always!
Talking about games getting a younger audience into older music/jazz: Back in the day Mafia 2 got me interested in older music. It had amazing soundtracks, with the in-game radio giving you the perfect feel for the time the game plays in
I played alto saxophone for two years in a big-band jazz orchestra, playing mostly classic swing charts. While we didn't really touch Latin swing, I have to agree with you that playing in a jazz band is one of the most exhilarating, exciting, and fulfilling things I have ever done. 😊
I fell in love with jazz first when I was young and playing Fallout. It's a beautiful thing you describe in the end of your video. I'd love a hand camera or some kind of visual for the theory you talk about, but great video as usual.
The entirety of the Nier series is an absolute treat to listen to, even if you never make a video. Some starters I recommend are A Beautiful Song, Song of the Ancients, and Ashes of Dreams
I have the 4 vinyl collection and it just sounds so much better played back via analog outs versus digital! It's like, the hiss/pop/crackle undertones you get just make this music feel so much more authentic and "of the era". It's such a good soundtrack!
Admission to Perdition is one of my favorite Cuphead songs. It takes parts for the other Cuphead songs and merges it into this one chaotic song that gradually gets more and more intense until the end where it gives this feel of the music being on it's last leg trying to reach the finish line. I absolutely love it, I would recommend Admission to Perdition to any person who liked the sound of the two songs covered in this video.
Easily one of my favorite things about the OST, is the unique solos. By that, I mean how much they vary from each version. Depending on where you hear the song, you hear all new solos. Let's use Admission To Perdition, since this is the only song to have four unique versions, since alot of the songs borrow other solos from different versions. In the soundtrack release you'd find on Spotify and UA-cam, you hear an escalating saxophone solo, in the game itself, you hear a piano, in the vinyl release, a muted trombone, and in the CD release, an all new sax. It's like this for every big band song, and it's something they did not have to do at all, but they did, and I love Studio MDHR for doing so.
This game is a beast but so fun and rewarding when you get that next level. The art direction is fantastic and the music is sooo good. thanks for commenting on the music.
As a classically trained musician, most of my experience watching Charles' videos is me pretending to know what he's talking about so that I don't embarrass myself in front of myself.
DUDE! It was so cool to see you analyze Cuphead's music like this. Really loved it; as a fellow HS jazz band player, I love the feeling that the soundtrack gives off. Each song is top-tier in my book, and just spectacular. A few suggestions for other analysis videos (that I'd DEFINITELY watch!): Cave Story, Ori and the Will of the Wisps (and Blind Forest), Hollow Knight, Iconoclasts, Terraria (and Terraria Calamity Mod), The Binding of Isaac (old and Rebirth), and VVVVVV. Each of these are fantastic soundtracks that house some of my favorite songs in all of gaming, and I'm sure you'd love it!!
My personal favorite tracks are both of the Barbershop Quartet songs, Ruse of an Ooze, Threatin' Zepplin, the Mausoleum, Mr. King Dice's theme, and One Hell of a Time.
Was well worth the wait to see you look at this games soundtrack. Studio MDHR is super dedicated to authenticity for this game, from music to art, to I believe even having (some if not all of) the text for the game done by a person who would hand paint signs back in the day so their calligraphy skills were in point. The person they had do the soundtrack is pretty genius. Saw that someone’s mentioned it already but they really added variety by records multiple solos for each song. I would recommend to try to play the game, it can get difficult though. It’s also hard to pick a favorite track for me because I’ve enjoyed just listening to the soundtrack all the way through both while playing game and as background music.
KEEP FEEDING ME UNEXPECTEDLY GOOD MUSIC. What next?
Persona 5! Fan favourites include last surprise, whims of fate, life will change and many more! Persona 3&4 also have amazing tracks as well
VULFPECK
The persona series!
no cupheads music does have business being that good you dummy
Hmm, Steven universe background music, or Animal crossing
I guarantee you, everyone who's played the game has listened to every song in the soundtrack more than once, whether they wanted to or not.
When he started playing the dragon fight 10:41 and I heard that little fire guy about to jump I had some war flashbacks
i haven’t im sorry
Lol this comment 😆
Yup because you do the fights over and over afain
I have completed cuphead and now I can name almost every song from just 10 seconds of listening
Did you know that in the actual game (as in: not the Soundtrack on Spotify), every time you restart a level (or die, which happens quite often) you get a different solo for the same song? That‘s because they recorded around 400 solos overall for all of the tracks. So, each track averages at four different solos you can check out. They just were like „well, we still habe these takes recorded… why throw them away?“ Just pretty impressive work overall.
There's a couple of layers going on here. Most of the time the music in any given game is going to be the same after so many retries. It can get boring real fast.
Having the music chage up that much and often will keep you from getting bored or even irritated.
My other theory is that since what you are listening to is different, then you might be able to change up your strategy if you keep failing. You obviously need to do that in order to win, but having a few cues where things are different might help that in a subconscious way.
as someone who didn't and doesn't plan to play the game (because I know I won't get far) that is super cool to find out! Thank you for sharing that fun fact :) The soundtrack is amazing!
Holy shit, did not know that part, that's insane!
Not only that but all the tracks keep going when you restart. Where in most games the song would start from the beginning every time. So you get to hear the entire track as you play through many tries.
Wow! That’s so cool! Love that my 15 y old nephew and my 9 y old son spent hours on this games together!
7:48 Charles: "The game has got to be tons of fun."
Me, staring at my broken controller: "Yes... fun." 🙃
Yes! Fun!
7:43
PLEASE I KICKED A HOLE IN MY WALL WHILE PLAYING THIS GAME SKDJDKFJ
@@lovelabs3116 More than The Last Guardian?
It's FUN!!!
If you ever feel useless, remember that Cuphead has a "mute" option.
IT HAS WHAT
Cupheads mute button is the yin and dooms mute button is the yang,
Polar opposites but in harmony
Is that HERESY I smell?
@@HarryPotter-uv8yp let’s glass the Heresy
That must feel so empty and miserable to play Cuphead without any music
seeing him just riff off of the track he's never even heard before and being able to keep up and make it sound seamless with the rest of the song is truly the reason why i love jazz so much
The composer studied his ass off to make sure he got everything right. He really did his homework
Agreed
Gotta admire the work ethic, attention to detail, and sheer dedication.
I agree
@@Stevie-J "It's clear from the way he explains things in this video that he doesn't know a single thing about the history of sound design in video games." Hey he never claimed he does and you don't have to be a prick about it. Why don't you recommend other great music and tell us what we're missing instead of judging others like an elitist ;)
@@Stevie-J "I was trying to be nice about helping to get people to see that." Dude, you were NOT trying to be nice, lmao. You just built an argument predicated on your own interpretation of this dude's personal knowledge, and the absolutely bonkers assumption that anyone who studies music is well-versed in the history of video game soundtracks. Quit projecting your own biases and insecurities on others and get your utterly pathetic self out of here mate...
It's not just live music in a game, it's live music in an Indie Game by people who had never really made a full game before. Pretty impressive how all-out they went on every detail of Cuphead. Everything was also inked and painted by hand for instance.
Edit: THE ANIMATION WAS HAND DRAWN AND INKED, THE BACKGROUNDS WERE HAND PAINTED, SURE THE ANIMATION WAS COLORED DIGITALLY I DON'T CARE ITS STILL A LOT OF HAND DONE WORK DONT @ ME
No. the animation was drawn by hand (which is incredible!), but hand inking it would look the same as digital, so to save time the digitally inked it.
@@jakeisthedoctor2308 nah dude, all the frames were inked by hand by Maja Moldenhaur. They colored them digitally, because as you said about the inks, there's little difference between flat cells and flat digital color, but the inks were done by hand. And also the backgrounds were painted traditionally.
@@Tokechan ............ wow. Just.... wow 😳
Nah, pretty sure they weren't new to making video games. A new company, sure, but the people were experienced from other parts of the industry. Not like it was just a bunch of non-game developers and non-artists who came out of nowhere.
@@glowerworm I think maybe they had like tinkered in their own free time, and Ryan was a graphic designer with like web/mobile/UX experience but as far as I know they never released anything. And while Maja did a bunch of art and I'm sure the bros did like sketches and stuff, all the animation was by animators they hired
Slightly off-topic: can you believe that was hand animated!? They could've gotten away with just digitally emulating that old cartoon look but they went the extra mile and I think that's super impressive.
Take a look at music from Made In Abyss, please! Kevin Penkin is an absolute unit!
vouch for kevin penkin. hanezeve caradhina is a brilliant track.
I too vouch for kevin penkin.
they actually hand drew the majority of it and all of the fine details were fixed later on a computer. they saved hours by drawing characters almost close to done but not perfect and then making the final additions on a software. still absolutely insane they did that though
@@shiwakao hanezeve caradinha is amaziiing!!!
Yes! Made in Abyss music is beautiful
Hand-drawn frame-by-frame art a la early Mickey Mouse, dope-ass big band music, old-school sidescrolling platforming bullet hell chaos... Cuphead was dope. It made me very angry when I played it, but goddamn it's a great example of Game as Art.
I didn't like the intro a cappella, though. I hear what they're trying to do, but it's very, very obvious to my ears that it's modern collegiate barbershop. They were spoiled with great singers in the real early cartoons. Shoptimus Prime are fine, but they're not Cab Calloway... or the choirs in Disney's 50s films, which I guess they're more shooting for.
It is damn good game, but I would not count it as Art. Just gaming as entertainment medium perfected. Games which count as Art are way rarer than what Cuphead represents. Ico and Journey are Art in gaming. Sands of Time-trilogy in Prince of Persia also achieves that status as a whole.
@@vksasdgaming9472 Fair! I'm super happy to agree to disagree. Interesting though, I fully agree Ico and Journey were Art games, I'd extend that to Shadow of the Colossus and Flower too. Prince of Persia surprised me tho! I always thought of the series as Tomb Raider meets orientalism but I also was pretty young when I played
@@TsiSiFa List of games which are Art is way longer than what I mentioned and subject to debate. Original Prince of Persia was Jordan Mechner's expansion of Karateka. Interestingly that game (Karateka) also counts as Art because of it's very advanced and skillful storytelling with very primitive gaming technology and use of rotoscoping. Sands of Time-trilogy is Art because of it's very robust, thematically cohesive story ending with encounter with Jungian Shadow and becoming a full circle. It also was first game to place heavy, acrobatic emphasis on parkour-elements. Chrono Trigger and Planescape_: Torment also count as Art because they perfect their subgenres.
@@Mnnvint stfu they did a masterpiece
1:12 It has african drum elements, that's pure undistilled Samba, a Brazillian genre that has african roots.
It's all in 2 also.
I was wondering if didn't anyone realize that.
That slow smile as he realizes that what he’s hearing is actually good is always so damn wholesome!
Yaaass I feel the exact same way because that was the reaction when I listen to this incredible theme music 🎶
@@Stevie-J Ah yes, it's definitely not that he is just very passionate about this subject and enjoys to talk about it. Why can't you just be nice.
From Pokemon to Undertale to Cuphead, these games that you covered tend to have the most memorable and outstanding music
Pfft someone without a mustache XD
(Sorry :P)
Do you watch ten same videos as me, I see you everywhere !
you are everywhere go away
why are you always here
I just finished cuphead recently, and the music was the sole thing stopping me from throwing my controller through a window
There should be a cuphead veterans’ support group
@@nicocastilho376 very true
Been playing it on and off for years, still haven’t beaten it!
Relatable
I have up after like 3 levels lol
Damn I was really hoping he’d look into Railroad wrath which is arguably my favorite track in the entire game. You’re fighting a train so it uses chords that contain the dissonance associated with a train horn. Yet it’s still a fantastic big band groovy track which fits PERFECTLY for the boss fight of fighting a haunted train. *chefs kiss*
I also wanted him to do Dramatic fanatic because of the slapping in it
@@jonothanrennert3098 the whole soundtrack is straight big band 1920’s bangers
I've been listening to the entire 3-hr thing over and over for the past two weeks. Currently, Perilous Piers is my favorite simply for how inanely difficult it is to play
Railroad Wrath is also in my top-three tracks for the reasons you mention. 👍🏻👍🏻
I think "Ruse of an Ooze" is heavily underatted probably due to the boss being the easiest in the game.
Also the unreleased Airship boss has an amazing theme. I think the level was going to be like a tutorial of sorts having a boss which can only be killed with parries and other mini bosses like clams
The bit of squeaking percussion in the beginning of floral fury is from a South American drum called the cuica, also known as the monkey drum. It’s probably most well known for creating that distinct noise for the Gorons in the Legend of Zelda series
This game brings me back to old school Tom and Jerry when the cartoon hinged on the music to tell the story. Specifically the ones produced by Fred Quimby.
There is a Tom and Jerry inspired boss, Werner Werman in Murine Corps.
@@maxkaminsky13 and the mouse being German is a play on how German soldiers were called jerries in WWI.
Any relation to Mayor Quimby?
@@nategwright omg that is so clever!
The part at the end really hit home for me. If not for cuphead I wouldn’t be watching this channel or even into music at all. It’s cuphead that convinced me that music is worthwhile and that realization is probably the best thing that has happened to me in my life.
lmao, and your channel banner is "music sucks"
What a wild comment
The implementation in game is especially interesting, for the solos in particular there were several different musicians recorded playing a solo over the same section which is then randomly picked from in-game. Meaning that each time you restart the boss you will hear a different version of the music
Not true. They tried this and it didn't pan out very well, so all the in game versions of the tracks are what you will always hear in game, and the soundtrack release just has different solos. Some of the in game tracks and soundtrack tracks share the same solos
Big Band was the popular music for the era Cupheads represents. So it all works absolutely perfect. But the game is really hard, so no joke. They did so well with this soundtrack.
At least you get to listen to one of the greatest video game soundtracks of all time when you're pulling your hair out trying to kill the fricking bee
i would really love a revival of music from the 40s, they seriously bop unlike modern manufactured blandness
Man needs to get him some “Transistor” action going. Fantastic soundtrack.
ohh yes thats a good one
Any of Darren Korb’s music honestly
Yeah, I was going to say any Supergiant game: Bastion, Transistor, or Hades.
Any Supergiant game really. Pyre, Bastion, Transistor, Hades inject it all into my ears please
Mr. King Dice's theme song is in my playlist since the game released and it just never gets old
honestly, my favorite parts of the soundtrack are the barbershop quartets that appear. i love that type of harmony-focused vocal performance. in case you wanted to know, the group that performed the barbershop pieces in the game are called 'Shoptimus Prime
Definitely deserves a part two, as the entire soundtrack is fantastic!
I'd love to see Charles take a deep dive into Keiichi Okabe's score for Nier: Automata and Nier: Replicant.
The music engine in the game doesn't just play BGM, it dynamically fades in and fades out layers of the track to complement the player's actions and the surroundings.
Perfect for a game about existentialism: what makes a given track? Is it the component melodies, vocals, percussion and bass lines? Is it each component, or one particular track? How much can you remove or change before it becomes no longer itself, or an entirely different song? In boss fights like the Simone fight, the music also responds to the actions of the player and the boss; how active a participant in the creation of the music does this make the player?
That's a really interesting way to use the BGM!
"If you fade out a part of the song and replace it with a part of another song, and you do that over and over again and again until every part of the song is changed, is it still the same song?"
@@Deadflower019 Hmm yes Theseus' song.
@@Deadflower019 Also imo no, since the moment you did the first replacement you can already say that's either a remix or a mashup and not anymore the original song itself. By the end of it all you're just probably listening to a PACIL video or smth.
Charles Cornell becomes a streamer who just analyzes the soundtracks as he plays the games
These guys play the soundtracks as they play the games: ua-cam.com/video/slmJX4OEcCc/v-deo.html
I love hearing people who have a deeper understanding of something we all love but have a better way to articulate that.
You just feel this game is handcrafted, because the soundtrack is live recorded big band and also the animation is handdrawn!
So true!!!
What does "handcrafted" even means to you though
@@portemanteau3802 idk. Non corporate?
DrNai every frame was hand drawn, to the point where certain people had ice packs on their wrists
@@545Booboo i'm aware. Did you reply to the wrong person?
Cuphead is definitely too good - in art, music, gameplay, true gaming masterpiece
Tbh I'd say it falls a bit short on gameplay. The game feels straight up unfair sometimes
@@cardfreak0560 Nah, it's challenging but pretty fair, maybe just a couple of BS moments. Run n gun games are usually harder than Cuphead.
@sigmafun3880 wayyyyy harder, I got frustrated with cuphead as well but once you beat all the bosses once, it gets easier and easier even on expert. I'm watching someome beat the game but the bosses have 10x the health and it looks pretty fun/tortures lol
*12:31* My favorites have got to be the two final boss themes (Yes, this game has two separate, completely different tracks for a single boss. Absolute dedication, am I right?), especially Admission to Perdition. It's just a gigantic, amazingly executed fanservice to all the Cuphead music enjoyers. It brings back the best part of almost every single previous track in one of the most ethereal and absolutely almighty pieces of music to be ever created for any piece of media, _ever._
Railroad Wrath is my favorite from the base game
Charles: Trumpet purgatory
.
The Percussion Section: Welcome to hell.
YESSSSS its always a lucky rehearsal day ( or a really bad practice ) when percussion soloes a section
Awesome video!! Two of my former sax profs actually played on this soundtrack - you can see them side by side at 8:27!
Love the channel!
That's actually dope as hell
We gotta see some Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door analysis. Super underrated and interesting soundtrack
totally
Oh wow, good call
Thank you for remembering that game too
Hell yes, I love that game and it's music.
Mainly want to see Intro, Prof. Frankly, and all the major areas
As an animator this is one of my favorite games. I'd love to see more of these kind of videos where you cover topics like music from games, movies and animations.
Little Nightmares 1 & 2 have incredible music too. My favorites are:
-Togetherness I (Little Nightmares II)
-Six's theme II (Little Nightmares)
-A feeling for meat (Little Nightmares)
-Lost in transmission (Little Nightmares II)
-Claustrophobia (Little Nightmares II)
-Lure of the maw (Little Nightmares)
-Hypnosis (Little Nightmares)
-Prison Toys (Little Nightmares)
-Boots through the undergrowth (Little Nightmares II)
-ArpWhistle (Little Nightmares II not propably in spotify)
Agree
The rhythm on this is actually a Samba rhythm (the type you’d head at carnaval). It’s not really considered latin though….. the composition itself however (the sounds and orchestration) is very latin indeed
Gotta love Samba!
Wait… Samba doesn’t count as Latin? 😳
@@WiseLittleOwl It's because most brazilians don't consider themselves latin.
@@gustavoabreu3097 true, but only because most of us have terrible education and assume 'latin' equals Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.
@@WiseLittleOwl "Latin" is an umbrella term imposed onto all latin american countries and assumes there is an homogeneous culture they all share because they were colonized by "latin european" empires. But there really isn't such culture, and brazilians are the ones that get the worst part of it because even colonialism was vastly different there than what it was in spanish colonies.
Even hispanoamerican countries are vastly different from each other and have their own distinctive music styles. Tango, milonga, cumbia, payada, candombe, murga, bolero, etc etc etc. But they all get thrown into the same bag because of that term. Imagine if you were to define a musical style as "European" instead of... say... Polka, for example. That's why a lot of people would prefer the styles to be recognised for what they actually are, instead of "latin music".
In jazz things get a little muddled, because Americans got in contact with this cultures and styles mostly through "latino communities" (people from different latinamerican countries who migrated into USA and created their own communities with their own culture). So "latin jazz" is Its own thing and comes from those communities, not the latin american countries. It kinda works like what americans call "black culture", which is basically "culture from afro descendants living in USA".
I played Karnival Kerfuffle in high school. Such a fun chart
*Carnival
@@jackmccombie102 I wouldn’t have believed that ‘K’ was a typo, if you hadn’t corrected it _yourself._
Cuphead is a work of art. So much passion in the music, animation, sound design, everything.
Honestly, you need to record/stream a playthrough of this game. It can be very rage-inducing but also is so, so fun, and seeing your live reactions to the art and music would be amazing.
Grim Fandango is a classic adventure game that was remastered recently. It features some really jazzy tunes and awesome soundtrack by Peter McConnell which also got re-recorded alongside the remaster. A couple of amazing highlights in this soundtrack are Casino Calavera, Gambling Glottis and Swanky Maximino. This stuff is just A+!
Please PLEASE talk about the King Dice songs. I'm so so disappointed that you didn't cover em, cuz King Dice is literally meant to look and sound like Cab Callaway.
And the overall aesthetic of Cuphead (in terms of art and music) is meant to take after the pre-colorizrd era of television, so like older Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat, the version of Tom & Jerry where they were two men instead of a cat and mouse, etc.
Although, I don't really recommend playing it unless you're good with really difficult bullet hell types.
Waiting for the day Charles checks out the Jazzy Persona 5 soundtrack (I think it’s technically mostly acid-jazz?). Also didn’t even need notifications haha
YES
Ohhhh yes!!
Yes please!!!
Cosigned
Lookin’ cool, Joker!
Floral Fury is my favorite song to listen to because it's a samba which fills my Brazilian self with serotonin, but I'd say my favorite song in context is Dramatic Fanatic: the boss being fought in that level is a stage performed and the song features tapping! Also I love how the overworld themes get slowly less cheery as you venture from the Elder Kettle's house to Hell!
Charles: "I wanna play it!"
Well, prepare yourself for a lot of pain, this game is hard!
Of course Cuphead’s music has right being this good, it’s a work of art. Every single frame in-game is hand drawn!
💯Some indie games have really great music. The Consouls did a whole Radio on indie VGM and I asked for a cover of Floral Fury - and got it!
Every boss battle has a unique tune, and that’s the best part! Also, PLEASE check out the Delicious Last Course song that just came out, it’s absolutely stunning, and I’m sure you’ll love it!
Couldn’t get it out of my head for days.
This game legit has the most amazing soundtrack possibly of all time. I was hoping you would listen to more, because as great as Floral Fury is, there are some other absolute classics to discover. I would recommend Honeycomb Herald, Pyramid Peril and Railroad Wrath too. Railroad Wrath has this increeeeedible clarinet solo that is just so good
I would love a full uncut tape of him diving into each of the tracks in this game.
I played Trumpet in our small combo band and we played Carnival Kerfuffle!! It was so fun!
It's cool he was able to describe the game perfectly without even playing it. Just hearing the fitting soundtrack is enough.
My favorite song from the game is threatenin zeppelin. I love all of the kind of organized chaos that goes on, it is more or less a simple minor blues but the way the backgrounds drown out the soloist occasionally with these simple chords makes there never a dull moment
If you were to cover one, it would be fantastic if you played Railroad Wrath, Shootin n lootin, or , yes, threatenin zeppelin
You'd think that after a few years of being subbed that I'd get used to Charles nearly perfectly playing a song after hearing it twice, but of course not
When I say that Floral Fury gets me moving EVERY TIME? I mean it.
You might like this: ua-cam.com/video/slmJX4OEcCc/v-deo.html
that's the power of samba baby
@@matheussanthiago9685 s a m ba parceirou
4:10 "Erlkonig hat mir ein Leid getan"
Who would have thought that Cuphead's OST would have so much in comon with Schubert.
EDIT: also, Grim Fandang's music, you should check that out.
Has someone asked you to look at the music from Luca? Cause I would love your take on not only the soundtrack, but also that riff that's used throughout the original compositions and why it feels so warm and nostalgic. Such a great little riff that I would love to see analyzed. 🥰
When the game came out I instantly bought it. They put so much love and passion into the game, it fills my heart with joy.
Played Latin/Jazz band percussion and drums in college and I couldn’t agree more- band always has the best energy when playing this stuff!
These guys agree: ua-cam.com/video/slmJX4OEcCc/v-deo.html
Take a look at Donkey Kong Country 2's music. it's iconic and incredible at not only creating an atmosphere but being a jam.
I'm definitely late to the party here but the Hades soundtrack is fantastic; it's got Greek vibes while mixing in some rock elements. Darren Korb is a fantastic composer.
8:42 bruh I play trombone so in rehearsals when the saxes are working on their lines I play the pickups and just stare into the void
I love how Shootin’ and Lootin’s theme is given a completely different feel in the Closing Credits by primarily just slowing the tempo. But of course the vocals just knock it out of the park. I especially like the backup vocals. Alana Bridgewater’s solo is amazing too. I also love the barbershop quartets (Don’t Deal With The Devil, A Quick Break).
You should review the music from The Backyardigans, it has some excellent music, with episodes like "The Yeti", "International Super Spy", and every other episode really
My favourites from the soundtrack include, of course, Floral Fury that you've already checked out, but also King Dice's theme (the sung version), the Ribby & Croaks music, and the Root Pack music. But I think my absolute favourite is the xylophone-led track that plays over when you have a chat with Ms Chalice after defeating a mausoleum stage.
If (when?) you do play it, there's a really awesome detail, in that a few fights can have completely different stages, depending on if you did something a particular way in the fight! And these secret other-versions all make complete sense according to the action used to get them, too. There are also the aforementioned mausoleum stages which are protecting an object rather than defeating a boss, and "Run n' Gun" stages which are more straightforward platforming, but the vast bulk of the game is boss fights (some of which are in an aeroplane, most of which aren't). It's very difficult! Be warned!
4:17 - It sounds amazing when you play it slow
Watching stuff like this especially as a trumpet player really makes me miss playing music in school. I didn’t get to finish college bc of family problems but I always wanted to get back into music bc it was really a passion. Love you videos
The DLC dropped a month ago, and for as little content as it is, I'm impressed that they made it feel better in every aspect, in my opinion, than the base game. A review on that maybe? 👀
Would love to see you listen to the music of Over The Garden Wall.
It’s a Cartoon Network miniseries from like 2014, with music inspired by 1800s folk type songs, so if you liked cuphead this one is a unique treat! It’s honestly one of my favorite scores ever.
I would absolutely LOVE a video explaining much of the rhythms and parts of latin music! It’s something I’ve always wanted to get into but there isn’t very much information that I could find online about it.
The song "Aviary Action" is definitely one of my faves, just because of how diverse it is. Multiple different sections each with a distinct feel, and not to mention the kick-ass clarinet featured throughout (and the reference to Ride of the Valkyries).
The 17-bar interlude at 2:50 in the song specifically is my favorite section, partly because of the "four-on-the-floor" beat you talked about but also just because of how much it GROOVES.
11:33 My friend thats what introduced me to so much music I feel I would have never found out by myself or thought I would like.
Hey Charles! Could you probably have a go at the soundtrack of "Hollow Knight"?
Total departure from this and perhaps other jazz, but it is one beautiful soundtrack through and through.
Cheers
I second this
I third this
FIFTH
8-Bit Music Theory did a fantastic 3-part series on the music of hollow knight. Playlist here: ua-cam.com/play/PL-ZQIvQFPv4LZHpzMDxZI3IQ5yjpyTbWp.html
While your at it Charles, Celeste’s soundtrack is great
I’m glad to see stuff like this because it shows that you just really love music. I do the same thing when I hear horns, I start doing fingerings. And, yeah, Latin jazz is way fun!
Speaking of mixing the game and music, I wish you’d covered the Victory Tune! Beating a tough boss and being rewarded by those triumphant horns is one of the best victory screens of all time.
Look at this man's eyes when he's starting to play along at 6:42... You really felt the music and had a joyful moment and i felt that and it made my day!
I wish you could’ve listened to Dramatic fanatic! It’s a great example of having unique style of music integration! Tap dancing makes up a lot of the song!
My favorite track by far is Threatin’ Zeppelin. The syncopation that starts at 0:23 seconds is so groovy!
𝔼𝕣𝕞 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥𝕤 𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕦𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕪 𝕨𝕣𝕠𝕟𝕘
Charles, you should do a video on the music from the game ABZU. It’s a beautiful, sublime, and expertly composed game and there’s so much music that could be broken down, I think you’d love it!
You should talk about the music from A Short Hike. The zones in the game blend together with different themes and tonal commonalities and it’s absolutely fantastic.
2:47 that is so true!!! I am only in high school but recently my band class played a song called “mambo” from west side story. It was a Latin dance song and that so was pretty hard to learn but by far my FAVORITE piece of music I have ever played so far! I can only to play a song similar to it in the future!
Bruh. This soundtrack is a banger. Listened to the whole playlist today. Played it for my students too. Keep it coming.
FINALLY YOU CHECKED OUT CUPHEADS MUSIC!!! IM SO HAPPYY!
Edit: okay I just finished the video, and I gotta say I really love how you analyze everything! Sorry I was way to excited when I first commented haha! Great video as always!
First song is HEAVILY comprised of Samba, specifically the "big band" Samba that's played on Brazil's street carnival events.
Talking about games getting a younger audience into older music/jazz:
Back in the day Mafia 2 got me interested in older music. It had amazing soundtracks, with the in-game radio giving you the perfect feel for the time the game plays in
6:40 Chair Dancing - yaa that's my reaction to music also.
I played alto saxophone for two years in a big-band jazz orchestra, playing mostly classic swing charts. While we didn't really touch Latin swing, I have to agree with you that playing in a jazz band is one of the most exhilarating, exciting, and fulfilling things I have ever done. 😊
I would absolutely love to listen to a whole feature film of Charles soloing over Cuphead tunes
I fell in love with jazz first when I was young and playing Fallout. It's a beautiful thing you describe in the end of your video. I'd love a hand camera or some kind of visual for the theory you talk about, but great video as usual.
I never realised there was so much jazz in VGM until I got addicted to The Consouls and their brilliant VGM jazz covers!
The entirety of the Nier series is an absolute treat to listen to, even if you never make a video. Some starters I recommend are A Beautiful Song, Song of the Ancients, and Ashes of Dreams
I have the 4 vinyl collection and it just sounds so much better played back via analog outs versus digital! It's like, the hiss/pop/crackle undertones you get just make this music feel so much more authentic and "of the era". It's such a good soundtrack!
Admission to Perdition is one of my favorite Cuphead songs. It takes parts for the other Cuphead songs and merges it into this one chaotic song that gradually gets more and more intense until the end where it gives this feel of the music being on it's last leg trying to reach the finish line. I absolutely love it, I would recommend Admission to Perdition to any person who liked the sound of the two songs covered in this video.
12:22 good luck if you try to play the game, it is painfully hard
Also, I'd like your breakdown of the Silence: Whispered World soundtrack. I absolutely love it and really enjoyed the game as well!
Easily one of my favorite things about the OST, is the unique solos. By that, I mean how much they vary from each version. Depending on where you hear the song, you hear all new solos. Let's use Admission To Perdition, since this is the only song to have four unique versions, since alot of the songs borrow other solos from different versions. In the soundtrack release you'd find on Spotify and UA-cam, you hear an escalating saxophone solo, in the game itself, you hear a piano, in the vinyl release, a muted trombone, and in the CD release, an all new sax. It's like this for every big band song, and it's something they did not have to do at all, but they did, and I love Studio MDHR for doing so.
Wow I think it would be so cool to watch a virtual concert of you. Just seeing you vibe and have fun would be a good time
This game is a beast but so fun and rewarding when you get that next level. The art direction is fantastic and the music is sooo good. thanks for commenting on the music.
As a classically trained musician, most of my experience watching Charles' videos is me pretending to know what he's talking about so that I don't embarrass myself in front of myself.
DUDE! It was so cool to see you analyze Cuphead's music like this. Really loved it; as a fellow HS jazz band player, I love the feeling that the soundtrack gives off. Each song is top-tier in my book, and just spectacular.
A few suggestions for other analysis videos (that I'd DEFINITELY watch!): Cave Story, Ori and the Will of the Wisps (and Blind Forest), Hollow Knight, Iconoclasts, Terraria (and Terraria Calamity Mod), The Binding of Isaac (old and Rebirth), and VVVVVV. Each of these are fantastic soundtracks that house some of my favorite songs in all of gaming, and I'm sure you'd love it!!
I love seeing Charles having a good time enjoying the music and looking forward to playing the game. I hope no one told him what hes in for.
My personal favorite tracks are both of the Barbershop Quartet songs, Ruse of an Ooze, Threatin' Zepplin, the Mausoleum, Mr. King Dice's theme, and One Hell of a Time.
Was well worth the wait to see you look at this games soundtrack. Studio MDHR is super dedicated to authenticity for this game, from music to art, to I believe even having (some if not all of) the text for the game done by a person who would hand paint signs back in the day so their calligraphy skills were in point. The person they had do the soundtrack is pretty genius. Saw that someone’s mentioned it already but they really added variety by records multiple solos for each song. I would recommend to try to play the game, it can get difficult though. It’s also hard to pick a favorite track for me because I’ve enjoyed just listening to the soundtrack all the way through both while playing game and as background music.
There's a song in Cuphead sung by a barbershop quartet that tells the player to take a break every once in a while 😂