Cuphead is a great game with a great soundtrack, and its delightful ragtime score is finally getting the recognition it deserves. For the first time ever, a video game soundtrack has hit the coveted number 1 spot on Billboard's Jazz charts, and it's none other than the double-album re-release of last year's soundtrack, Selected Tunes from Cuphead. The score held the spot for the week of September 14 in Billboard's Jazz Albums category, and has since been taken over by Miles Davis.
If there's any soundtrack to deserve the honor, it's undoubtedly Cuphead's. The fully orchestrated tunes feel incredibly faithful to the complex big band and ragtime jazz arrangements of the early 20th century, each one swelling in intensity to suit Cuphead's progressively more difficult order of stages. Before the soundtrack reached number 1 on Billboard's jazz charts, it had already nabbed a BAFTA for Best Music.
Billboard says it "ranks the most popular albums of the week, as compiled by Nielsen Music, based on multi-metric consumption (blending traditional album sales, track equivalent albums, and streaming equivalent albums)."
For musicians and jazz enthusiasts, there's Cuphead sheet music available for purchase currently, bundled into packages with groups of classic Cuphead arrangements like "Die House," "Carnival Kerfuffle," and "Clip Joint Calamity." If you aren't familiar, I recommend playing the game immediately, or at least checking out the soundtrack - you won't regret it.
