Once More, with Feeling

The soundtrack to last year's Buffy musical ep, Once More, with Feeling, has just been released on Rounder disc. And if Joss Whedon's maiden songwriting effort (not counting a brief snippet of Giles song in an earlier dream story) won't blow Sondheim out of the water, it's still plenty enjoyable on its own modest terms: with witty character-driven lyrics and solid pop/show tunery. Bet Joss wished that his title lead could really sing, though, since she's given the most complex, episode defining number ("Something to Sing About"). Would've saved 'em from a lotta Zappaesque tape-splicing.

Of the cast, Anthony Head's Giles and Amber Benson's lamented Tara acquit themselves best: the latter's "Under Your Spell" is clearly the "break-out number," a melodic & sexy pop tune. Special Guest Villain Hinton Battle's hi-de-ho-isms deliberately recall Calloway-by-way-of-Danny-Elfman (wanna bet Whedon has a videotape of Forbidden Zone somewhere in his collection?) Cooler than the Boogeyman in Nightmare Before Christmas, not as good as the actual Cab-man.

I like that the soundtrack even includes the snippet songs - the guy who got the mustard stain cleaned from his suit, the woman trying to argue herself out of a parking ticket (if I remember right, that second li'l bit was originally buried behind expositional dialog) - and the extra "suites" (instrumental passages from two other eps, including deserved fan fave, "Hush") are nice, too. A demo tape of composer Joss and wife Kai Cole assaying "Something" reveals that the song - with its sudden rhythmic shifts and counter-intuitive chorus - is probably unsingable by any but the most rigorously trained theatrical voice. Which perhaps makes Sarah M. Gellar's attempt as brave an act as anything her heroine has done . . .

So when do we get the belled-and-whistled DVD release?

Article Author: Bill Sherman

Bill Sherman is the Comics & Graphic Novels review editor for Blogcritics. With his lovely wife Rebecca Fox, he has recently co-authored a sudsy size acceptance novel entitled Measure By Measure.

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