"They Got the Mustard Out!"

Once More... CD

Yes, it's finally out! After months and months of anxious waiting, the soundtrack to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Musical Episode "Once More With Feeling" has finally been released! It was released on September 24, also the date of this season's premiere. Coincidence? I think not.

Never having written a CD review before, I'll start almost at the beginning of my experiences upon receiving the CD. I'll skip the gory details of my "it came in the mail dance!" If you want a review of that, talk to my cat.

"Hey, I'm not wearing underwear"
The first thing my eyes rested on was the colorful character illustration of the CD cover picturing headshots of Buffy, Xander, Willow, and mini versions of Sweet and Dawn. The illustrations are very classy and fitting the muscial "Once More With Feeling" title. And as a note to us crazy fans, there's the disclaimer "Original Cast" so we all know they haven't gone out and hired real musicians and ruined everything.

So once I screamed and whined my way through all the protective plastic, I was able to actually open the CD case and pull out the booklet. In the same illustration style as the cover, each character gets their own introduction page with their character name and the actor's name. Very classy, kinda cool. I don't remember what the CD itself looks like. It's in currently in the CD player playing, and I don't feel like stopping it, so let's just move on.

"Some kid is dreaming, and we're all stuck inside his crazy Broadway nightmare"
The dreamer is definitely Joss Whedon, its far from a nightmare. Creative mind behind Buffy and the author of all the lyrics and most of the musical score, Whedon has a 4-page, humourosly self-centered chat session after the introduction pages. This 4-pager CD message is classic Joss. It's wonderful.

If you aren't familiar or aren't a big fan of his writing with Buffy, Angel, or Firefly, maybe because you may not like sci-fi (I hear there are people out there like that... really!), then let me clue you in on something you may not have known... Joss Whedon was also a part of the writing team for Toy Story. And if you didn't think that was funny, there's something wrong with you.

The CD message weaves through the idea of this masterpiece came from, touching on a little bit about his own musical background and then through some of the troubles he encountered while bringing the idea to the end product. He wraps it up with a short description of what this episode was about (for you poor, deprived people who didn't see it) and thanks a lot of people. Then comes some fan-friendly film negative photos and then the songs list. (Songs? On a CD? She finally got to the songs??? It's about f-ing time!)

"I'm free if that bitch dies I'd better help her out"
There are 23 wonderful tracks on this CD and not one of them is the Buffy or Angel theme song, which I count as a good thing, as much as I do like them. Nineteen are from "Once More With Feeling;" 16 song tracks, plus the special main title music and the end credits ("Broom Dance/Grr Arrgh"). I could go one forever about how great all these songs are, how well they're written both muscially and lyrically, how well they fit into an episode format, how much fun it is to hear the actors sing. But I'd just be repeating myself 19 times. So I'll prove my point by using only one line from one song:

The Song: "I'll Never Tell" (Track 5) Sung by Anya and Xander.

The Line: "His penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe."

The reasoning: The line is sung by Anya, portrayed by Emma Caulfield. She has a beautiful voice and yet, in my opinion, only the 3rd best singer on the CD after Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and Tara (Amber Benson). It's a funny line (come on, you laughed, I know you did!) and, it leads you back to a previous episode, showing Joss Whedon's focus on serial consistency. It also is a very "Anya" line, true to her character's somewhat abrasive personality.

"But whisper in a dead man's ear that doesn't make it real."
I do have to take some time to recognize the non-episode tracks, because this could've been the make-it or break-it point of the CD. They made it completely. Home run, Touchdown, GOAL! These tricky tracks don't really belong, but yet, they were chosen wisely and end up fitting. They aren't any of the up-to-date tracks that you often find during the show. They're original scores from other great episodes. Let me explain...

Track 20 is the Suite from "Restless." For the initiated but unobsessed, Restless is the Season 4 Finale Episode - the episode where Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander and the first slayer all share the same dream. Great episode - nice classical track too!

Track 21 is the Suite from "Hush." GREAT music - I was thrilled to discover this on the CD! This is the episode where everyone loses their voices to the creepy Gentlemen. The music was pretty much all you heard for a good 30 minutes of the episode! (And considering the "hour-long episode probably only lasts 45 minutes, that's a long time!) This music would also be perfect to play over and over again in a haunted house.

Track 22 is Sacrifice, from "The Gift." This was the Season 5 finale, where Buffy dies. Very appropriate considering "Once More With Feeling" wouldn't have had a story line had Buffy not died and been brought back from heaven. Very moving piece.

Track 23 is the absolutel bonus gem of the entire CD. It is a demo version of "Something to Sing About" performed by Kai Cole and Joss Whedon. Kai Cole is Joss Whedon's wife. She sings Buffy's part, he sings Spike's part and plays the piano in the background. According to his CD discussion, they're singing in the foyer of their house. How cool is that?

"The battle's done and we kind of won"
In conclusion, I realize that I am a very biased reviewer. I fully admit, Joss Whedon knows how to push all my buttons. When this episode aired, I watched it eight times within a week. I admit there are issues in the singing (i.e., Spike's accent doesn't always stick and Xander could use another lesson) but I truly think that it's the flaws that make it that much better. These aren't paid muscians singing these songs: these are the familiar actors that have been on the show for years. It's really them! It's too much to expect that they were all going to turn out to sound like like Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge, though I think Anthony Stewart Head and Amber Benson could give the two of them a run for the money. (Don't picture it! I just did the humor of imagining Giles and Tara on top of that element weakens my argument a bit.) The muscial score could be considered "simple" compared to the 1812 Overture, but no one can argue with the lyrics. Joss Whedon's mind is brilliant and it is all because of him that this CD is so worthwhile.

"Where do we go from here?"
My final reviews:

A must-have (and worthwhile investment) for Buffy fans!

A worthwhile investment for potential Buffy fans!

An interesting adventure for non-Buffy fans - see what you're missing!

This article was re-run May 19, 2003 as part of Newmoanyeah's Farewell Buffy Week.