Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More, with Feeling

This CD is the essential musical companion to the classical episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling (Season 6)". Not only are all the songs brilliantly written by Joss Whedon, the tunes are SO catchy, this CD will have you whistling for weeks (believe me, I speak from experience).MAIN TITLE - For this episode, they fixed the regular rock-out version of the theme by Nerf Herder, into a musical, classical version. Although with no words and only 26 seconds, it is still rather amusing to listen to.OVERTURE/GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS - The overture of the CD takes place in the beginning of the episode, and while it has no words, is very soothing and peppy (if a song can be both those things). It leads into Going Through the Motions after roughly a minute and 10 seconds, which is the brilliant Sarah Michelle Gellar singing the first song. Definitely one of my favorite songs.I'VE GOT A THEORY/BUNNIES/IF WE'RE TOGETHER - This song has many different tunes and portions to it. I've Got a Theory, the first part, is sung by Anthony Head, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendan, and Emma Caulfield. It soon leads into "Bunnies", sung by Emma Caulfield, which is a rock-version of why she hates bunnies so much. Makes me laugh EVERY TIME! Finally, If We're Together is a very Scooby Gang song, with Buffy telling her friends that they can beat anything. Heartwarming! :)THE MUSTARD - While only 20 seconds, this song makes me laugh out loud, every time I listen to it. Only 5 lines sung by a big burly man. "They got the mustard OUT!" No more needs to be said.UNDER YOUR SPELL - Amber Benson's voice is just magic in this song. I have hummed, whistled, and sung the tune for weeks at a time; even learned to play it on the piano and sing along. So powerful and a beautiful love song of Tara and Willow's love. *sigh*. It makes you smile.I'LL NEVER TELL - Very, VERY 1950s. Upbeat, and the lyrics, GOSH are they funny! Definitely suits Anya and Xander's relationship (who are played and sung by Emma Caulfield and Nicholas Brendan). Just hearing the soft, but upbeat, and extremely mocking lyrics make you laugh while listening. They continuily list their faults in each other. Though I must admit, I can not listen to it constantly like I can do with "Under your Spell". Still love it though!THE PARKING TICKET - Again, something to make you smile. Although it is 45 seconds, it is much like The Mustard, a look into how the other residents of Sunnydale are dealing with the singing. A woman croons to a police officer about how she doesn't deserve the parking ticket, with lyrics like "There was no parking anywhere," and "I think that hydrent wasn't there". Definitely funny, if not anything else!REST IN PEACE - Sung by the brilliant, brooding, and completely amazing James Marsters, this song illustrates how Spike loves, but completely HATES Buffy. A rock out, vampiric, absolutely sick and awesome song. There's nothing else to say. Bloody amazing!DAWN'S LAMENT - It begins with the soft tune of "Under your Spell", but quickly turns into a soft guitar melody of Michelle Trachtenberg singing only 8 words. "Does anyone even notice? Does anybody even care?" Then it cuts off with a large screeching and intense music part, as Dawn is kidnapped. While not one of my favorite songs, and still only a minute and 20 seconds, it is still sweet.DAWN'S BALLET - This song redeems the last. In the actual episode, Michelle Trachtenberg's dance moves fit in perfectly with this song, swaying with the lyrics. And while it doesn't have any words, is very intense and, eh, orchestraeey? (I doubt that's a word). It's rather hard to explain, but I definitely give this song a thumbs up!WHAT YOU FEEL - I don't exactly know the name of the actor who played Sweets in this episode, the demon who causes the singing, but he does amazing in a jazz song sung to Dawn. His deep voice blends together perfectly with the song. Really amazing!STANDING - Ah, Anthony Stewart Head. With him portraying Giles, in this song, he sings about how he believes that if Buffy is ever to grow up, he needs to leave. With lines like "I know I said that I'd be standing by your side," and "so you just lie there when you should be standing tall," this song was a tear-jerker (well, for me anyway). Definitely a beautiful song.UNDER YOUR SPELL/STANDING (REPRISE) - Wow. What can I say about this song? Amber Benson and Anthony Head's deep and beautiful voices blend together absolutely perfectly! At this time in the series, both of their characters are contemplating the fact that they need to leave the ones they love: Willow and Buffy. "Wish I could stay." It starts off with Amber singing new lyrics to the tune of Under your Spell, but then melds into a mix of Standing and Under your Spell. Two thumbs up!WALK THROUGH THE FIRE - Ah, the amazing and talented Sarah Michelle Gellar. All of the cast has really outdone themselves in this song. Sarah M. Gellar starts off singing softly with a guitar tune, which progresses powerfully. Then James Marsters cuts in, singing individually and then with Sweets. Then the Scooby Gang cuts in, then Buffy/Sarah Michelle, and then everyone together! It is just a mix of pure genius!SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT - Again, it's the brilliant Sarah Michelle Gellar/Buffy who takes this song, singing her heart out to her friends, her enemies, and her sister. In the series, the Scooby Gang don't know Buffy was in heaven, and so in this song, she confesses that's where she was. Very powerful and sad, but pretty, with a little interruption from James Marsters at the end.WHAT YOU FEEL (REPRISE) - Although this short song is only 46 seconds, it takes on the tune of What you Feel, with new lyrics of how Sweets promises that even though he lost, the gang will definitely feel like they lost too.WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? - And so, on that note, this song is by the whole Scooby Gang, lamenting about how even though they battle evil together, they really don't know what is going to happen next. "Understand we'll go hand in hand but we'll walk alone in fear." The revelation about Buffy has rather shook them, and this is their last song (well, the Scooby's last song together). Powerful and very enjoyable. One of my favorite songs on the CD.CODA - A very short snippet with Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy), and James Marsters (Spike). With only 41 seconds, Buffy sings to the tune of Walk through the Fire, and Spike sings to Rest in Peace. In the end, they meet up with the Scoobies singing "Where do we go from here?" Rather good, in my opinion.END CREDITS (BROOM DANCE/GRR ARGH) - Basically, for the end credits, the brilliant Joss Whedon took Where do we go from Here, and but it into a jazzy, '50s, 34 second song. Really funny, and can easily bop your head to!SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT (DEMO) - Hm, well, this might be the only song on the CD that I do not like. It's not like I hate it with a passion, but it is rather a waste. From what I've heard, it's Joss Whedon's wife singing a demo of Something to Sing About, originally sung by Sarah Michelle Gellar. It's not that she's a bad singer, it just sounds...wrong. That's my two cents.SACRIFICE (FROM "THE GIFT") - Oh gosh, this song makes me cry every time. Or at least, makes me choke up. It's the suite from the end of Season 5, when Buffy sacrifices herself for Dawn (hence the name "Sacrifice"). It's very powerful and sad. It makes me remember that last few moments of the episode "The Gift." Yep, that episode always made me cry too. Very good addition to the CD!SUITE FROM "HUSH": SILENT KNIGHT/FIRST KISS/ENTER THE GENTLEMEN/SCHISM - Woo, that's a long title. This is a very long song, I think it's just about 7 minutes. It basically takes all the music from the episode Hush from Season 4, and condenses it into one song. It's very creepy and haunting, but there's a lot of it, because that episode was basically all music. It's ok, but I don't like it as much as I like Sacrifice.SUITE FROM "RESTLESS": WILLOW'S NIGHTMARE/FIRST RAGE/CHAIN OF ANCIENTS - This song is from the last episode of Season 4: Restless. I really love the first minute of it, but then it goes all congo drumish, and I don't really like it until the 3 minute mark, where Buffy is interacting with the First Slayer in the episode. That part is really haunting, and beautiful. All in all, I like this song better than Suite from Hush, but it's not my favorite.Ok, I believe that is all the songs on this album. Basically, buy the CD. Amazing songs, and all of them are definitely worth your money!

Loved this

I've been a fan of the series Buffy for a while now (and by extension Angel). It is a show that really grows on you, if you are willing to see under the surface of it.When the episode "Once more with feeling" aired over here in sweden, I for one was very unsure about it. I've seen this before; musical episodes. It may or may not work.But to be honest it took me with complete surprise. This ep. might be one of the best in all seven seasons. I do not buy soundtrack albums often, and even less often by the spur of a moment. But I did so in this case.The CD is all that I expected. The cover booklet is very well made and consistent with the theme.you get 23 tracks in total but only 19 are connected to the ep. in question. The rest are from other well chosen episodes (also good by the way).There are many gems on this cd. Several of the cast can really sing well and over all both music and lyrics are well above good. But a few songs really shines bright. Tracks like: "Through the motions", "What you feel", "Under you spell", "walk through the fire" or "something to sing about" are super strong melodies.Amber Bensons (as Tara to Willow) song is one of the best songs I've heard in a long time. It captures the emotions perfectly and it's all but impossible not to feel all warm and fuzzy inside...and it really gets stuck in your mind too. Brilliant!I've played this cd many times now, as well as looked at the ep. on VCR too.It has been said that Buffy is one of the best tv shows ever made, and you might agree or not, but this episode from season 6 and it't soundtrack will go down into the history of television - be sure of it! If nothing else in the eyes and ears of the many fans out there!So in short: if you at all like the show you probably will love this cd. No question...

We are avid BVS fans!! The whole series is riveting and captivating but, Once More, With Feeling takes the cake, at least for us!The songs, punch lines, choregraphy, story lines are really quite good, especially when you consider what a cheesy episode it was set up to be. Then there was the other side, a very serious side, showing the strained relationships and the cracks in their facades that became bigger than Hellhole itself. It really became evident at the end of the episode, after all their secrets had been exposed, that the series was taking a dramatic change and started a whole new type of BVS.This soundtrack is very Broadway-esquire at times, very rock n roll-ish at other times; very dramatic then very light hearted. You will find yourself toe tapping along with the music, wanting to get up and dance, then feeling like you are floating through a Willow tree! This soundtrack really covers several different genres.It was also amazing to hear the voices of some of the actors, impressive!!! The depth, the style, the extreme changes to the tempo really showed off their vocal chops, to say the least! And then there were the very few who really weren't endowed with the ability of singing, it was truly impressive how they dealt with that, but didn't exclude them either.The smartest part of the soundtrack/episode was the traditional ending when the little hand drawn monster went over the Mutant Enemy logo, after the credits, singing the part of "Grrrrr, Arrrrgh"! It was just so perfect how they arranged for the monster to be a part of the soundtrack, nice job!If you love the Scoobies, then you will really love this soundtrack!!