Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, With Feeling - Original Cast Album
AllMusic; Amazon; Apple Music; Discogs; Spotify; Wikia; Wikipedia; YouTube

Caution: spoilers for the show

This is the soundtrack to the season 6 musical episode of the same name, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was released in 2002, almost a year after the episode aired. I remember buying it in a store at the time and thinking that owning this CD made me cool. (Because I had loved the episode and all the songs in it.) I'm reviewing the album in 2024. I want to mention that there was a season seven episode called "Selfless" that had a flashback to the time in which the musical was set, with a new song called Mrs. that isn't on this album, of course. And... the liner notes have song lyrics as well as some very realistic drawings of the characters, some screencaps from the episode, and an introduction written by Joss Whedon (the show's creator, who also wrote all the songs in the musical episode). It's also pretty amazing that the songs are sung quite well by the show's actors, who aren't necessarily singers.

1. "Overture / Going Through the Motions", by Buffy: This does a great job of setting up the tone of the episode, and the fact that it's a musical. And of course it establishes Buffy's troubled state of mind.

2. "I've Got a Theory / Bunnies / If We're Together", by Giles/Willow/Xander/Anya/Tara/Buffy: This has a lot of fun humor, but also an inspiring sense of hopefulness.

3. "The Mustard", by random guy: This is just 19 seconds and is pure humor.

4. "Under Your Spell", by Tara: This is a beautiful and moving love song.

5. "I'll Never Tell", by Anya/Xander: It's a retro pastiche that may never be a breakaway pop hit, but it's incredibly fun and funny. And it's a great examination of Anya and Xander's relationship, both the good and bad parts.

6. "The Parking Ticket", by random woman: 45 seconds of humor that mostly sounds dramatic.

7. "Rest In Peace", by Spike: It's a great examination of Spike and Buffy's relationship, which he sees as mostly painful.

8. "Dawn's Lament", by Dawn: Just a minute 20 seconds, it's mostly sweet but sad music, and Dawn only has two short verses, but I've thought of those verses kind of often, over the years. They give a good sense of what it's like to suffer depression.

9. "Dawn's Ballet": Purely musical. Nice.

10. "What You Feel", by Sweet/Dawn: The demon behind all the music finally makes an appearance and tells his story. And despite sounding good, it's pretty disturbing.

11. "Standing", by Giles: In which Giles makes the painful realization that he can't help Buffy this time.

12. "Under Your Spell / Standing - Reprise", by Tara/Giles: Tara's part is a dark realization about Willow that casts her earlier song in a deeply troubling new light. Giles's part is basically an extension of his earlier song.

13. "Walk Through the Fire", by Buffy/Spike/Sweet/Giles/Xander/Anya/Tara/Willow: This is largely disheartening, but in the end it's inspiring.

14. "Something to Sing About", by Buffy/Spike: This starts out pretty upbeat, but ultimately it exposes the monumentally disturbing cause of Buffy's recent suffering. And it's heart-shattering. But at least she's trying to be hopeful. And Spike tries to help.

15. "What You Feel - Reprise", by Sweet: In which the demon summarizes the story so far.

16. "Where Do We Go From Here?", by Dawn/Buffy/Spike/Giles/Tara/Xander/Anya: The battle's done, and they kind of won, but... everything is not alright.

17. "Coda", by Buffy/Spike: This is just 40 seconds and mashes up excerpts from a few of the earlier songs.

18. "End Credits (Broom Dance/Grr Arrgh)": This is just 32 seconds of music.

19. "Main Title": This is just 27 seconds of music.

20. "Suite from 'Restless'": This is a mostly instrumental suite from a season 4 episode. It's pretty bleak.

21. "Suite from 'Hush'": Another instrumental suite from season 4. It's scary enough (in parts) that I put it on my Spotify Halloween playlist.

22. "Sacrifice" (from 'The Gift'): An instrumental piece from a season 5 episode. I don't know what to say except that I think it's beautiful.

23. "Something to Sing About" (Demo), by Whedon and his then-wife, Kai Cole: In which Cole sings Buffy's part and Whedon sings Spike's. It doesn't have the full instrumentation of the version in the show (which I prefer), but I think Cole does a great job with this pared-down version.

Well, I think all the tracks on the album sound great. And the songs all have clever lyrics that perfectly help tell the story of the episode (and the sixth season in general). The songs provide great character development, a gamut of emotions, and deep introspection, all while advancing the plot, and making this one of the most memorable episodes of the series.