Toe-Tapping Thursday: Once More With Feeling

Did anybody see this coming? Because I did...due to my unexplained urge to sing Where Do We Go From Here last week, I got stuck in a Buffy musical mood. So this week, I put together a list of my top 10 songs from the Once More With Feeling soundtrack.

Can I just say, I had a very hard time with the top 2. I kept going back and forth between these two songs. I'm still not 100% sure I put them in the correct order, but I agonized over it for too long.

10. What You Feel - This is Sweet's big number. Sweet is the red, tap dancing zoot suit wearing demon that makes every one sing and dance until they spontaneously combust. He is very charismatic, I really enjoyed him. It was probably the tap dancing that did it for me. :P

9. The Parking Ticket - Listen! this is a brilliant little ditty. It was one of my favorites from the first moment I heard it. It's such a sad and desperate melody...and then you actually hear the lyrics. The whole thing is hilarious. Genius.

8. Where Do We Go From Here - As I said last week, this is the number where the gang acknowledges all the secrets that were uncovered throughout the episode and wonder what's going to happen now. So many relationships changed in this episode...

7. Something To Sing About - This is a very depressing song. It's Buffy explaining how she views life now after she came back from the dead. The reason why this song made it on the countdown is because of the bridge - the song changes, all the instruments are taken away except for the piano, and Buffy finally reveals that Willow pulled her out of heaven. The piano chords were perfect, they were kind of perverse, but it fit so well. You heard and felt Buffy's pain for what she had to leave and you saw the look of horror on Willow's face when she finds out what she did to her best friend.

6. Under Your Spell - This is just a lovely song. I loved Tara and this is the last time (before her death - hope I didn't spoil anything. :P ) when her and Willow are really together and in love. It's also a bit of an ironic song, because Tara is singing that she's under Willow's spell when she actually is - Willow used magic to erase Tara's memory about the fight they had.

Willow's addiction to magic was one of my favorite arcs, if you go back and watch the show you see how gradual it starts - Willow being the smarty pants she is, curious about magic and wanting to learn. And she keeps learning and wanting to learn more and do more. At first she has a handle on it, but throughout the seasons you realize she goes from using magic as a last resort to a first resort. It's there a lot longer than people realize. It was a great setup.

5. Overture/Going Through The Motions - It's the first song! The first time you see Buffy singing, it's so exciting! And it's a great introduction; you see her at the cemetery doing what she does best, slaying vampires. You can see how bored she is with it all, she really is just going through the motions. It's a fun song, very Tim Burtonesque, I really enjoy it.

4. Under Your Spell/Standing Reprise - The combination of these two songs was great! Better than the two original songs. Giles and Tara singing together was heavenly. It's also a much sadder song - Tara just realizes Willow has been messing with her memories, and so the lyrics take on a somber tone. She's disgusted by what Willow has done and decides she has to leave her. Giles realizes he has to leave Buffy so she can fulfill her duty to Dawn; if he stays she will always rely on him and she has to stand on her own two feet for her own good.

3. I've Got A Theory/Bunnies/If We're Together - I always thought this song as one song, not 3 separate ones. When this episode first aired and (I guess) that whole year after, this was actually my favorite song. Xander's theory part was amazing! So funny - the words and the fact that he said it so fast! It's a well-known fact that Nicholas Brendon has a stuttering problem so the fact that he could do that was very amazing from a fan's point of view.

2. Rest In Peace - SPIKE!!! SPIKE SINGING!!! Need I say more? Ok ok - This is an amazing song. Spike truly loves Buffy (not saying that Angel didn't cuz he DID - Bangel shipper all day every day!) and he's always been the type of guy to wear his heart on his sleeve - Cecily, Drusilla, Buffy...For someone that loves this immensely, it is very painful for him to have the person he loves use him. Buffy tells him that she's disgusted by him, that she hates him, but she sleeps with him; that is truly a cruel thing for someone like Spike. Rest In Peace is Spike being fed up and angry about the way that he's used and then discarded. He's telling Buffy to leave him alone if she isn't going to love him. He goes back and forth in the song - he's angry at her and himself, and then you peel back the anger and what you have is heartbreak. He's hurting because he loves her so much and she just doesn't give a shit about him, and even though he knows this, he just can't leave. He can't leave her.

1. Walk Through The Fire -  This is such an insightful song. As we already know, Buffy is just going through the motions, she isn't really living, because she doesn't feel the wonders of living anymore. Not when she's comparing it to heaven. Everyone could tell there was something wrong with her since she came back and it created this divide between Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies. This song shows just how isolated she feels from everyone else - how lost she is, and alone. She wants to feel alive again, and so she gravitates towards dangerous situations (e.g. sleeping with Spike) in hopes of feeling "the fire". Buffy was always a very spunky and passionate person and she lost that when she came back from the dead (the second time lol). She's at a place where she'll keep throwing herself in dangerous situations just so she could feel again, even if it kills her.

At the same time, you have everyone else around her reacting to her lack of inner fire. The Scoobies want to abandon ship, they're tired of keeping up pretenses when things are not alright and Buffy won't talk to them, and tell them what's wrong. Giles is taking the training wheels off (so to speak), and Spike as he said in Rest In Peace is tired of the emotional abuse. But by the end of the song (when Buffy thinks she's all alone) everyone comes around and decides to help her and Dawn, because that's what they've always done.

I love this song for these reasons; because Buffy's friends abandon her, but change their minds in the end. Because of the way that Buffy feels - I can relate to it, I've been there, all of it.