Three Imaginary Girls

Seattle's Indie-Pop Press – Music Reviews, Film Reviews, and Big Fun

How much does it still freak me out whenever I hear James Marsters talk when he's not in character? A lot, that's how much. He's not British. It's freaky. This is old news (or not news) to most of you, but considering that James Marsters played the best Billy Idol this side of Billy Idol, well, that sort of freaks me out. All of this is a clever deflection to the fact that I know EVERY SOLITARY WORD of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical, Once More With Feeling, I have attended sing-alongs, I have listened to it over and over on repeat (and, as you know now, in fact have it on my iPod). And what do I say to all of you who snigger, who jeer? Bite me (no pun intended). If you can give me one good reason (ok, maybe 5 good reasons) why the Buffy musical is not an excellent piece of pop wonderfulness, then I'll maybe think about not listening to it so much. "Rest in Peace"? It is an incredibly over-wrought rock ballad sung by James Marsters (as Spike) – he is almost taking a page out of the Ewan McGregor playbook here. Joss (Whedon) gets Spike to sing lines like if my heart could beat, it would break my chest/but I can see you're unimpressed along with Let me take my love and bury it in a hole six foot deep. Now, if that is not perfect indie-rock-emo-core sentiment, I don't know what is. Come on people, if Ben Gibbard sang that line, then we'd be all ga-ga over the tender emotions and vulnerability. But no, here we get a vampire singer about a slayer. Perfect. No, more than perfect … fabulous. That is what we have here: fabulous pop perfection. You can quote me on that.