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Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling

Review by Philip N. Zeman, Editor in Chief

One of the most highly anticipated episodes of Season 6 of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer was what commonly was referred to as "Buffy: The Musical". It was well known that Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy had long desired to write an episode in musical form. But would the nature of the show lend itself well to a format where people break into song and dance at the drop of a hat? That was the question on the minds of many fans as the build-up to the episode grew, with ads running for weeks ahead of time showcasing what seemed to be actual cast members singing -- and singing well!

Finally, in November of 2001, "Once More With Feeling" aired, a show that ran longer than the normal 60 minutes. And every minute of it was fantastic. Joss proved that his wonderful writing skills could translate from dialogue to music, as he penned the lyrics and score of the episode. OMWF, as it was abbreviated, was simply a masterfully done work.

Now, around ten months after the fact, Rounder Records has released an album containing all the songs of the Emmy-nominated episode as well as some extra treats. Is this CD worth your hard-earned money, especially when there are MP3 clips of the songs taken directly off the UPN feed?

In a word, yes. After listening to this CD, I noticed parts I had never heard in the show, partially thanks to a different mix and mastering process, partially because these songs don't have dialogue creeping over them, partially because these songs were cut for TV, partially because they're just... different.

We'll get into that in the...

The Ten Point Stance

1. The Songs

The songs are, on the whole, fantastic. Joss was able to meld a variety of song styles into one cohesive whole for story telling. While it loses something without the dialogue spoken in the show, for the most part the general plotline can still be interpreted (thanks to helpful notes in the CD booklet).

Each person gets a chance to showcase his or her talents with a song of his or her own. The only exceptions to these are Nicholas Brendon (Xander), who shares a duet with Emma Caulfield (Anya); Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), who shares a duet -- and a dance -- with Sweet (Hinton Battle); and Alyson Hannigan (Willow), who seems to have the weakest voice of the Scoobies. The way Joss wrote the songs not only highlights the strengths of each person's range, but it also fits his or her character.

But what amazes me the most about the songs is that Joss so perfectly captured the style of a musical. We have the overture, which sets up the themes used in later songs; we have the main characters' signature songs; we have the finale which recreates a theme heard earlier. And he does this while poking fun at the inherent silliness of a musical -- people just do not break into song in normal life.

If that weren't enough, he does this all while advancing the storyline of the Buffy season. Before this episode, almost every character had something they were hiding from the others. This episode was a crucial point where all those secrets were revealed through songs, setting up the next major part in the story arc.

Truly masterful work.

2. The Mixing

I'm impressed. The mastering process has taken what we heard on TV and made it better. In "Standing", I felt the string section was not hidden as much behind Anthony Head's (Giles) vocal section. In "Going Through The Motions", some of the background vocals are a bit more subdued, allowing the more meaty lyrics to come forward.

3. The Unedited Songs -- The Good Things

I never heard the full version of "The Parking Ticket" on the show, as the dialogue fades up over the last few lines. In fact, the last line of the song is not even in the show, so hearing it on the CD makes even more of an impact. "Under Your Spell" also has a larger opening and ending. A few other things have been lengthened, or at least they seem lengthened without dialogue obscuring the notes.

4. The Unedited Songs -- The Bad Things

However, "What You Feel" is the only song where music has been taken away. In the show, the opening chords are played as an accompaniment to Sweet's soft shoeing (tap dancing). I assume, though, that without the sounds of the taps, these chords would sound rather dull and empty, hence them being removed from the CD. The song starts with the first measure of the first verse, losing about 8 measures total from the start. A bit of a shame. Also, there's a part near the end where (in the show) Sweet and Dawn spoke a few lines; this has been replaced by just a tad of silence. If they could have added the dialogue, it would have made the "story" of the song flow a bit more clearly.

And again, in "Bunnies", the silence before and after Emma rocks out (where the rest of the Scoobies look at her as if she's crazy) added some comedic tension to the song. Now, on the CD, the opening silence has been cut just a tiny bit (no cricket chirping, either), and the ending silence is gone.

Ending of "Bunnies" (TV Version)
Ending of "Bunnies" (CD Version)

5. The Unedited Songs -- The New Things

In "Something to Sing About", either they added some guitar to the CD version, or they removed it from the TV version, as I immediately noticed the new sounds. Here are two short clips of the different versions; listen for yourself.

Something to Sing About - TV version
Something to Sing About - CD version

6. The Song Order

Inexplicably, the Main Title is Track 19 rather than being Track 1. This goes against logic, I feel; it's the Main Title, the first thing that the viewer heard in the episode. Why place it at the end of the songs from the show?

7. The Liner Notes

Joss says that one of his dreams for OMWF was to get a real soundtrack of the album. "With endless, pompous liner notes, just like the real thing." Well, he got them. And they're funnily pompous, not embarrassingly pompous.

8. The CD Booklet

The CD booklet contains illustrations (see below), pictures, and -- yes! -- lyrics. I always love it when CDs provide lyrics for their songs, and I'm aggravated when they're not provided. I know that some times I have trouble understanding what is being sung, and there were a few times in OMWF that I didn't know what a particular line was. In "Something to Sing About", the weird rhythms at times made Sarah Michelle Gellar's (Buffy) lines almost indecipherable. And "Walk Through the Fire", although my favorite song from the show, had a part where nearly every cast member sang a line over Sweet, and I never could understand what he was singing. Thanks to the lyrics, now I know. And it's a shame that Sweet's words weren't brought to the forefront, because I felt his bridge was important to the overall storyline.

One thing that bugs me, though, is when the lyrics have typos in them. Typos in lyrics prevent them from doing what they're supposed to. Okay, so not capitalizing "i" isn't bad. But in "What You Feel", there's a line that is printed as "what'd you say" when the lyrics are "what do you say". Again, it's not a big thing, but it just annoys me a bit.

The design of the booklet is reminiscent of old-time musicals, just as it should be. The logo is bold and in-your-face in a 1940's sort of way, there are lots of stars everywhere, and the cast gets prominent display thanks to...

9. The Illustrations

The CD booklet and tray liner is decorated by illustrations of the people who sang on this CD. These are done by none other than Adam Hughes, an artist known for his painted drawings of comic book characters.

Some of the illustrations -- all head shots except for Sweet and Dawn -- look remarkably like the actor/actress, most notably Xander, Dawn, Spike, and Anya. Some seem a bit off, like Buffy and Giles (his head seems a bit... thinner than it should be.)

But in all, Adam's drawings help capture the overal feel of a musical, just as it should.

10. The Extras

Ah, yes, finally -- what else is on this disc?

The CD comes with 3 bonus songs or suites from various Buffy episodes and one demo track. First off is a suite from "Restless", the finale of season 4. Basically, the entire Scooby Gang is caught up in some pretty strange dreams, and eventually Buffy realizes her tormentor is the Vampire Slayer. This suite contains the themes "Willow's Nightmare", "First Rage", and "Chain of Ancients".

The second suite is from "Hush", also from the fourth season. This episode is hailed as one of the most unique episodes of Buffy, one that had the critics talking (pun not intended), and the first episode that I ever saw. In this, the Gentlemen come to the city of Sunnydale (where Buffy and crew live) and steal everyone's voices. What made this episode (penned by Joss himself) so intriguing is for half of the show, no one talked. Not a single word uttered. And yet, Joss was able to tell a story through gestures, diagrams, pictures, expressions -- and music. This was an episode where music had to tell the story as well as accent it. The CD contains "Silent Night", "First Kiss", "Enter the Gentlemen", and "Schism" in the suite.

The final piece of music from a show is entitled "Sacrifice". This song, from the season 5 finale called "The Gift", underscores a realization Buffy has. In order to save her friends, she must die in the place of her sister.

While the music is beautiful, I must admit that it's been so long since I've seen these episodes, there wasn't as much to draw me into the pieces. Unlike OMWF, I didn't rewatch these episodes over and over again, nor did I listen to the music over and over. I think it's because the tunes on OMWF have lyrics and tell a story that they're catchy, and easy to remember.

Still, Christophe Beck, who composed these songs as well as arranged the songs Joss wrote for the musical, is a talented musician in his own right. Perhaps with repeated listening, these tunes will be as familiar to me as "Walk Through the Fire".

Finally, we come to Track 24, the demo of "Something to Sing About". Sung by Joss and his wife Kai, with Joss providing piano accompaniment, this song is the first recording of any kind of this piece. Speaking from personal experience, I know that frequently the first and final recordings of a song can differ quite a bit; they may have a good portion of things in common, but the final sounds more refined.

Even though this was recorded in the foyer of Joss' house, the demo is eerily accurate to the final product. From the chord arrangement to the unique rhythm patterns, to the melody, the final version is exactly the same as the demo. Amazing that nothing was changed. Joss is quite the composer.

And I don't know who Joss is fooling. In the liner notes, he mentions (several times) that he can't play the piano. Yet, that's him playing the piano in the demo. Sure, he won't be playing Carnegie Hall anytime soon, but it wasn't like he used two fingers to plunk out a melody....

Conclusion

Is this CD worth your $15? For Buffy fans, I'd definitely say yes. For musical fans, I'd recommend it if you want to hear a modern take on the musical theme. For others, well, there's no real "break-out" song here, but you might be surprised if you try it.

And, according to an insert, in November Simon & Schuster is publishing the scriptbook about this episode, including a full-color photo insert and sheet music. Can't wait.