Tonya Mosley (4:20)

You use the word veneer to describe your character, that he has, like, this perfect veneer, but that's just the surface, because underneath, as you said, there's a lot of complexity. He's got a lot of challenges. I want to play a clip where he's talking to his brother Vince, as we said, played by Jason Bateman, and he's talking about the truth with his finances. And in this clip, it all kind of comes together, where we start to learn it's not on the up and up inside of this restaurant. Let's listen.

Jude Law (4:52)

You bet Mom's money on the Knicks.

Jason Bateman (4:56)

A lot of people bet the Knicks, Jake. They're a professional basketball team.

Jude Law (5:00)

And the money you got from the restaurant, it's the one you and Naveen.

Jason Bateman (5:03)

Kicked me out of.

Jude Law (5:04)

Yeah. Bailed you out, bailed you out. Saved your ass. You gambled that, too, right? Then you go down to Junior, take a loan on the house, you bet it again, lost it all, and then you skip town. Sound right?

Jason Bateman (5:19)

Sounds like the least favorable way you could possibly phrase it, but, yeah, you're all caught up.

Jude Law (5:25)

And us, I gotta ask. Cause the suspense is killing me. What happened to your shoes, Vince?

Jason Bateman (5:36)

I got a sweet number on the bus.

Jude Law (5:41)

You sold your shit.

Jason Bateman (5:43)

I took 500 bucks and I'm chipping away at it. I'm doing my part.

Jude Law (5:46)

Giggles yeah, okay.

Jason Bateman (5:48)

I did it on my way home from getting my finger chopped off by those damn zeros. Who say Jen is next?

Jude Law (5:54)

You're helping me. They said that? They said Jen is next.

Jason Bateman (5:59)

That's exactly what they said.

Jude Law (6:00)

How much do you owe him, Vince?

Jason Bateman (6:02)

140. Big number.

Jude Law (6:05)

140 grand.

Jason Bateman (6:06)

It's a big number. There was juice.

Ken Tucker (6:08)

Jesus.

Tonya Mosley (6:10)

That's my guest, Jute. Law in scene with Jason Bateman in the new Netflix series Black Rabbit. I know that you're the executive producer on this, and you initially thought about Jason as a director.

Jude Law (6:25)

Yes.

Tonya Mosley (6:26)

How did it come to be then? He's your brother, and he's that particular brother.

Jude Law (6:31)

I believe the order was we were developing this piece of. And when it became apparent that, you know, it was time to sort of go out, find the director who's gonna bring and breathe life into it, we kept referencing Ozark and the tonality of Ozark, that sort of dark, human, but humorous pitch that Jason also has as a performer. And he fortunately saw what we saw in the scripts and came on board as a director, wanted to throw himself behind it. And we hadn't found a brother for me, and it just became apparent to me, well, he should short. You know, he's such a great actor, and what a great asset. Why don't. Do you want to be one of the brothers? And he has this incredible quality, I think, to be likable. And it seemed like if we could have a Vince that had all this, you know, track record, and we still.

Tonya Mosley (7:32)

Kind of like him, but you still.

Jude Law (7:33)

Kind of forgive him, and he can still kind of be the funniest guy in the room and the most entertaining and charismatic. And, yeah, fortunately, he saw that, and so that's how we became the brothers.

Tonya Mosley (7:48)

This fascinating world, New York nightlife, behind the kitchen. You know, getting to see all the dramas and things like that. And your character in particular, he's a New Yorker. You're this New York archetype. You've even got a New York accent that kind of comes out. Did you study any particular person or accent or anything to kind of embody that?

Jude Law (8:10)

Yeah. Jake's a kind of amalgamation of a few people I know who had similar jobs. The voice came from working with a coach. And the trick I find that's. That helps is to be very specific about an accent. Like, you can't. Can't just say it's a sort of general New York. It's like, okay, what are the. Where did he grow up? And what did the parents sound like? And obviously, I had Jason as a brother, so I also had to go towards what Jason sounds like. And you have to give the accent a kind of history, otherwise you're generalizing. And so.

Tonya Mosley (8:47)

So you did that for this character in particular, where you. You made a person out of this person.

Jude Law (8:52)

Well, you. I have. That's how I just like to do it. I go back and you go, where was he born? And what was his childhood like? And what was mom like? What was dad like? What was his friends like? What was he listening to on the street? You know, what was his shows, Was he watching? And you kind of track their emotional and their life up to where you are at and how they've dealt with the different bridges, the different dilemmas, the different dramas. And so you fill in this history so that, you know, if people talk in a scene about your mom and you have an immediate reaction because you know what happened to mom and how you feel about her. And it's the same with an accent. It's amazing that the little things that influence. If I was to talk about my own accent. So I have. My mother was from the north of England, so I have a very. A little bit of the northern England in my Rs. My dad's from the south of England, so. And I grew up in quite a. What would I call it? I don't know. There was quite a strong southeast London accent, which I kind of tried to hide because I wanted to sound more posh. Yeah. But it comes out like if I go home or if I'm with certain friends. So all of that's in my voice. And so if you're playing a character, you want all of those details to be there.

Tonya Mosley (10:15)

I'm so fascinated by this work. Because you've had to play quite a few characters with different accents. I can imagine it's not an easy thing to hold on to all of that while also realizing and that you have to embody this when you practice it.

Jude Law (10:32)

It's kind of muscles, honestly, in the end. I mean, personally, I think I'm always doing an accent, even when I'm playing someone who's English. Because you still. They have a different background.

Tonya Mosley (10:41)

Right. It depends on what part of.

Jude Law (10:43)

It just depends on what part of England. And there's. There's the thinking it through and then there's the technique of doing it. And the technique is actually quite like taking your mouth and throat to the gym. You're basically teaching it to do different things. So you have. You have drills to do funny, like, sentences so that you're. You're teaching your tongue to go in a certain way and then. And you listen a lot.

Tonya Mosley (11:06)

I am really fascinated by some of the things you've done to really embody a role. So I watched the Other Night Firebrand.

Jude Law (11:15)

Oh, yeah?

Tonya Mosley (11:15)

Yeah. Your 2023 film where you played King Henry VIII. I read that you hired a perfumer.

Jude Law (11:23)

I work with her quite often, actually.

Tonya Mosley (11:25)

Really? Yes.

Jude Law (11:26)

Yeah. First of all, she's an absolute genius. Azzy. And she runs an amazing perfumery called the Perfumer Story. She makes incredible scents. And, you know, scents is a really quick way to accumulate sort of feelings and emotions. You know, if you walk into your grandma's house, it smells a certain way and you feel a certain way. If you go out and someone's been cutting the gr. Right, it evokes all sorts of memories. And the smell of gasoline. You know, I mean, things like that are very pungent and very quick to make you feel and think and fit. You know, my job is an odd job. You know, whether you want to or not, you turn up, you put on someone else's clothes, and you have to embody someone pretty damn quick. And sometimes it's like, hey, it's seven, the sun's coming up. We gotta go to it.

Tonya Mosley (12:12)

We gotta get this done, get in it. But let's talk about what she did for you. Okay.

Jude Law (12:16)

So she built this. She made a perfume for me. And I'd read this piece about Henry. He basically had these ulcers on his leg that were rotting, and it was a miracle he lived the 10 years he did with them. But you could smell him apparently three rooms away. He stank like a fetid.

Tonya Mosley (12:35)

Yes.

Jude Law (12:35)

And it was a really. What? I realized I'm playing him at the very end of his life when eventually he died of these things from a fever. And I just thought it would be very helpful to everyone else and to me if I stank. So she made me this incredible noxious odor that I kind of sprayed on myself.

Tonya Mosley (12:55)

It was made a concoction of pig sweat, fecal matter.

Jude Law (13:01)

You're going, does this say this to.

Tonya Mosley (13:03)

Mimic the smell of decaying fish? So it was really bad.

Jude Law (13:07)

It was really, really, really, really rancid. Yeah. But it really helped. To me, it was very interesting playing someone who is incredibly powerful, all dominant, expects everyone to bow to their every need and thought and want, and yet is sitting in a body that is immobile because of the weight he's put on and because of the wounds he has kind of in his own rotting flesh and having to kind of face himself. And he can't escape what he's done to himself and who he's become. You know, he's a mass murderer and deluded to the extreme of believing that he's second only to God. When he's about to face God and it's like, okay, what's going on? What's going on in that man?

Tonya Mosley (13:57)

You're pretty unrecognizable in that role. And I'm just wondering. There had to be some pretty interesting conversations around the rank smell on that set. It helped you. It also helped your colleagues, your co stars.

Jude Law (14:13)

Well, I mean, I did. It wasn't like I, you know, wanted to shock them or warn them, you know, but. But we discussed it, and Alicia Vikander, who is. Plays my wife in it, the queen, Queen Catherine Parr, was very game for it because she sort of loved this idea that she had to have this intimacy and this devotion amidst this sort of wall of stink, you know, and the guys who play my. My privy council were old friends of mine from the theater. And again, it was this sort of this. This conflict between observing their. Their devotion and putting up with this. This appalling physical decay.

Tonya Mosley (15:12)

Your parents were educators. What did they teach?

Jude Law (15:15)

My father started out teaching English, but then became quite a young age, a headmaster of a junior school. And my mom taught English. She taught junior school too. And then she specialized in teaching English to foreign children who are coming in without the. Without English knowledge of the English language. And then she set up a theater company. She was always very keen on theater, so she stopped teaching, went and did a course in theater directing and set up a theater company.

Tonya Mosley (15:53)

And is that how you were introduced to.

Jude Law (15:55)

I was already. They were also very much involved in local theaters, local amateur theatre, and that's really how I got involved. It was a place of great. Yeah. Community and fun. And I remember, you know, sitting in the back of the stalls of this little theater where Mum and Dad were putting on shows, doing my homework with my sister, or sitting watching, you know, endless rehearsals. And it just became a place for me of. It was very familiar, it was safe, it was fun, you know, seeing adults playing and laughing, figuring stuff out, telling stories. How do we do this in this way so that the people understand? And that was what an education. I mean, that's. I grew up watching that night after night.

Tonya Mosley (16:41)

There's this video that's going around. It's of you at like 11 years old.

Jude Law (16:46)

Is that.

Tonya Mosley (16:47)

And you're doing movie reviews?

Jude Law (16:49)

Oh, no. Yeah, that was basically a. A TV company came to the school and were like, oh, we want. We want kids to review movies of different ages. And so they met a whole bunch of us and they chose me. And so, yeah, I went on this morning show, did a couple of film reviews.

Tonya Mosley (17:14)

Were you a movie buff?

Jude Law (17:16)

I was a movie nerd, totally.

Tonya Mosley (17:18)

Yeah.

Jude Law (17:18)

I was obsessed with films and from a very young age, still am.

Tonya Mosley (17:23)

What kinds of Movies.

Jude Law (17:24)

Oh, everything.

Tonya Mosley (17:25)

What lit your fire? What do you remember that really stuck in your mind?

Jude Law (17:29)

I just loved the ritual and the immersion of going into a cinema. And so at a young age, you know, I was very lucky. Gosh, I grew up watching Indiana Jones and ET And I mean, all the great stuff. And then at a certain age, realized there was all this other stuff, these black and white movies from the past. And I fell in love with old movies, too, whether Chaplin or, you know. And then my mom got me really into foreign movies, so she was taking me to see Truffaut and Goddard. And my dad, meanwhile, would be taking me to see Rocky and, you know, Rambo. I mean, it was a very broad immersion.

Tonya Mosley (18:16)

Yes. You were part of the National Youth Music Theater.

Jude Law (18:22)

Yes.

Tonya Mosley (18:22)

Which you say, you described it as meeting your own people. Did you feel out of place before that in the context of school or outside of the theater world?

Jude Law (18:35)

Yeah, I guess I did. I mentioned before the community of this local theater and, you know, because there's a sort of trust, you know, in making those eccentric leaps of faith and putting on a play. School was a funny thing, funny time for me. I never really felt like I fitted in particularly. I wasn't brilliantly academic. I wasn't an idiot, but I wasn't, like, super academic. I was a pretty good sportsman, but I wasn't like, you know, big jock. I was. I. I did fine. And looking back, I can see I was, you know, I was very pretty and I was confident, and I wanted to be an actor. And I probably wound a lot of people up. I wasn't, I would say, pretentious, but I was also someone who was not gonna bow down and be, like, humble and shy. And I found the. The need for people to kind of all follow the same path and be somewhat sheep, like, incredibly frustrating. And so I usually kind of spoke my mind, which, again, wound a lot of people up. I imagine, looking back, and when I'm, When I. When I. When I auditioned and I heard about the National Youth Music Theater, my parents were like, you know, you might want to do this, and I got in. Suddenly I met all these other kids who like theater, and they like. And they wanted. Or they were brilliant young musicians or they wanted to work in storytelling. And it felt. Yeah, they suddenly felt like my. My people.

Tonya Mosley (20:16)

Our guest today is Jude Law. We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Tonya Mosley, and this is FRESH air.

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Tonya Mosley (21:36)

Podcast from npr so fascinating that you were so deep in the theater then. And that troupe, I can imagine, really gave you an understanding of maybe what a career might be. What were your aspirations? Was it being a movie star? Was it in theater? Was it whatever the possibilities could be.

Jude Law (21:56)

I think the latter. I was hoping, I guess, if I remember rightly, to just have a career in performing in whatever shape that looked like, you know, whether it was a life. I got a job from that. Someone saw me in one of the plays we did and got me an audition for a TV show. So I left home and I left school and I went and did this TV show, became a professional actor, and that led to another job. But. But at that. What I knew at that young age was I really wanted to go into the theater. Like, I really knew that's where I would learn my chops and really earn respect. So I remember there was a big process then of trying to get taken seriously in the theater. I got into the Royal Shakespeare Company. I worked at the National Theater. And that, again, was a place of real learning. And, you know, you can't, you can't hide in the theater on that scale. I guess if you'd asked me back then, yeah, I'd have said I'd love to be in the movies, but the movies felt a long way away. You know, I remember seeing movies with Gary Oldman in who Grew Up Near Me and Tim Roth, who Grew Up Near Me, or Daniel Day Lewis who didn't Grow up near me. But, you know, these were London guys who I was like, oh, that's a career I would love to emulate. But it felt so distant. It felt like other theater was more immediate. And I was just lucky that one then led to the other.

Tonya Mosley (23:29)

From the very start, you caught Hollywood's attention. Gattaca is one that I absolutely love and is a cult classic. At the time, it had done fairly well. But the talent at Mr. Ripley, I think is really. When you became a name where folks could identify you, did it take you then by surprise? Just what they were paying attention to? Because it sounds like you wanted to have this serious career. Still do, which you have done. But when you first arrived, it was really all about your looks. Yeah. Did that catch you by surprise?

Jude Law (24:10)

Not really. I actually turned down the role in the Talented Mr. Ripley because my concern was he was the good looking guy and I was worried that that would limit my career. I suppose I wanted to be seen as something more than that. And I'm very lucky I didn't turn that role down because it changed my career and I got to work with all these wonderful people, opened a lot of doors and it was a great experience, but it did. One of the doors it opened was this attention. Yes. To what I look like. And I still find that shallow and frustrating, if I'm honest. And it's interesting, isn't it, that we're in a time now where, you know, for women for many years, that was something that was all always discussed. And I kind of, I. But, but fortunately we're turning a corner now where if, you know, if the same conversation were to be applied to a woman, they'd quite rightly be able to say, you know, that's not cool, let's not, let's not go there. And it's always been, yeah, bit frustrating. But it's a very odd subject to talk about because in, in talking about it also sort of feels like I'm affirming, you know, that you're saying, yeah.

Tonya Mosley (25:35)

I'm a good looking.

Jude Law (25:36)

Good looking.

Tonya Mosley (25:36)

Yeah.

Jude Law (25:37)

But yeah, it was a kind of. It felt always like a bit of a limitation, weirdly.

Tonya Mosley (25:44)

Did you try to do things to combat that and the choices that you made?

Jude Law (25:49)

Yeah, for a certain amount of time. Yeah. There were certain roles definitely at key moments which I chose because I just thought, oh, well, this will take it away from being that stereotype. I like to think now that I've been doing it long enough and I hope provided enough evidence and variety that it's not or no longer all people see. But just the other day I was at the Toronto Film Festival and in at least two or three of the interviews, that's all they wanted to talk about, my looks. And I kind of looked at them and thought, you know, I'm a 52 year old guy, I've got a 30 year career. And that's all you're talking about?

Tonya Mosley (26:31)

Yes.

Jude Law (26:32)

You know, it was very odd.

Tonya Mosley (26:33)

Yes.

Jude Law (26:34)

And again, limiting. It just feel. But hey, it's also. It's not like they're insulting me. My God.

Tonya Mosley (26:39)

Right, right. There are worse things to have to keep talking about.

Jude Law (26:42)

Yeah, yeah. But it is something that fades, so it can't be something you hang your entire life on. It changes, you know.

Tonya Mosley (26:49)

Well, I'm glad to hear that you actually took on the role as Dickie in the talented Mr. Ripley. What a star studded cast. At the time, you all were just young actors. Matt Damon, I think, was the most well known person at that time. We're talking 1999. What do you remember most about that experience?

Jude Law (27:12)

There was a palpable sense of excitement and energy that, you know, we were doing something good because Anthony Minguela, who was just the most beautiful spirit and ran a very happy team, he was a director. He was the director, writer, director. He had just won a whole bunch of Oscars for his film the English Patient. And yeah, everyone on the set had, you know, there was a buzz around them. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kate Blanchette, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Davenport, and as you mentioned, Matt in the lead role. So my memory is feeling the pressure to step up and deliver. It was also one of play and fun. It was undeniably glamorous and romantic to be all over Italy and shooting this thing on yachts and in train stations and on the, the Spanish Steps in Rome and on these little islands off the Amalfi coast. I mean, idyllic and wonderful and all young enough, or certainly I felt young enough to feel also invincible and incredibly bold and brave and confident. Yeah.

Tonya Mosley (28:37)

Were there any choices that you made in embodying Dickie that you kind of decided I wanted to complicate this person, I wanted to make this person a little bit rougher or more than what maybe even is on the page?

Jude Law (28:56)

Well, yeah, absolutely. I don't remember all the literature I read, but there's an awful lot of detail in the, in the novel by Patricia Highsmith and there's a, there's a sort of thread of a backstory that you get a sense of in the film anyway, where he has this violent temper. He has this sort of frustration. Dickie. And you see it a little bit, and they talk about him hurting a boy at school. So you know that there's this darkened part. It's this sense of, you know, the ultimate kind of spoiled rich kid really gets away with everything. There's also a sort of incredible arrogance to that kind of a guy. I thought that I was nervous about creating, because that's not me. It's that kind of confidence of just absolutely owning the room, especially when that room has Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchette in it. And it took a lot of getting really, really, really building up to it, and really. And Anthony was amazing at that, letting me, because I was probably the least known. I'd done the least work. I did a couple of, like, little independent movies in some theater.

Tonya Mosley (30:12)

And you were aware of all of them and their work?

Jude Law (30:15)

Oh, yeah. Kate, I believe, had just played Elizabeth. Gwyneth was about to win an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love. Philip was just. Everyone knew Philip's work because he was a genius. And I think I'd seen him in some of P.T. anderson's early films, and I knew his work in theater. Matt was already a star. But I remember Anthony really talking me through, you know, the need to sort of assume this confidence. And he did it through very wonderful ways. Flattery and just encouragement.

Tonya Mosley (30:49)

Like what? Cause he had to pump you up to be confident and to help, to have this hubris.

Ken Tucker (30:54)

Yes.

Jude Law (30:54)

But it wasn't a case of, like, the coach in the corner talking the boxer into the ring. It was done over a period of time. You know, he gave me a sense of ownership and belief.

Tonya Mosley (31:04)

Is there anything that he taught you that you still use today?

Jude Law (31:07)

He. He talked a lot, but not so much on that film because it wasn't really my place. But when we made Cold Mountain, he talked a lot about being a host. That when you're. When you're. When you. When you. When you're the lead in a film, you know, a big film is a moving morphos beast, and you get different people coming in. Sometimes it's the only day on set, but it's really important they deliver and that they feel confident and they understand the mood of the set. It's like a. As he put it, it's a wedding, and you're. You're the groom or you're the bride. You got to go introduce yourself. You've got to make sure they're comfortable.

Tonya Mosley (31:38)

Yes.

Jude Law (31:39)

And they. They get the tone of the room and they get the tone of this, you know, and it's their turn when the camera's on them, it's all about them. And I remember feeling he was absolutely right. And it's important that I think that percolates down on a set so that people do their best work, so that people are happy. And, you know, it's a collaborative art form throughout crew cast. Everyone's got to be on their game.

Tonya Mosley (32:09)

Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is Jude Law. He stars in the new Netflix series Black Rabbit and is known for acclaimed roles in the Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain and the Sherlock Holmes films. We'll be right back after a break. This is FRESH air.

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Tonya Mosley (33:53)

You have seven children. Yeah. Ranges from what age to what age?

Jude Law (33:58)

28 to 3. It's always a lifetime.

Tonya Mosley (34:03)

Yeah. I just sent my daughter off to college and I was thinking, actually, as I was doing it now, if I could do that all over again now I think I got some things, you know. I know. Yeah.

Jude Law (34:13)

Would you do it all over?

Tonya Mosley (34:15)

I would. Or maybe I'm just in the feels right now, you know. But I'm just wondering from you, like raising kids, do you just when you have that between 28 and 3, does it feel like, okay I'm now getting better and better practice at this. Or does it feel brand new with every one?

Jude Law (34:35)

Oh, brand new with everyone. But the experience certainly calms you. I'm trying to think of a good sort of metaphor for it. You know, you've been on the road before, but the weather's always different. Right. And maybe the vehicle's different too.

Tonya Mosley (35:05)

It may be. Right. The road is different, Right?

Jude Law (35:07)

Yeah. It's raining or it's icy.

Tonya Mosley (35:12)

This road has a lot of bumps.

Jude Law (35:14)

Yeah, potholes. Exactly. That's funny. Lot of potholes in this road. Yeah. Honestly, it's the single thing, as it should be in my life, that keeps me totally alert and real. It's because every day is a new day for them to discover themselves, and you're there guiding that or just letting them know that you're there for them. And they approach it differently. And so you're still kind of figuring out, how are they seeing this and how can I help or support or guide? And is that standing back or is that getting there, getting involved? It's a living, breathing thing. And it's true what people say, that, you know, it never ends. It's not like, oh, okay, they've left home and they're entering adulthood. Because then those phone calls are, you know, a little more weighty and a little more serious if they need your help or guidance. But the physicality and the involvement of being a daddy to little ones is, you know, immediate and demanding. And I would certainly also say that, you know, having been a dad when I was in my mid-20s, I mean, the energy I had back then and the ability to bounce back, I was the first one up. Now it's like, dad, get up. It takes its toll. It's hard work.

Tonya Mosley (36:44)

How has fatherhood, if at all, shaped the roles that you choose?

Jude Law (36:50)

If it's affected them, it's, It's. It's sometimes taking jobs because I need to pay the mortgage. Right. And I think. I think, you know, getting involved in. In shows like the Fantastic Beasts and Marvel, and it's probably because I thought my kids would get a kick out of this. But. But, but, but me too.

Tonya Mosley (37:21)

Right? Right.

Jude Law (37:21)

I was. I was as kind of curious to see into those huge worlds as they were, but honestly, the, The. The biggest way they've guided me of looking back now is that they. They really help just create normality in my life. And I. I love the. The tonic of going home and just being dad and not anything else. You know, sort of hanging up whatever coat it is you're wearing or the demands of all of that. And the output, because there's a lot of acting, to my mind is a sort of offering. Right. But it means you're putting out a lot. And so being able to go home and just sort of nestling into a domestic environment where you can just be a father or a parent is a wonderful relief.

Tonya Mosley (38:14)

Yeah. Jute Law, thank you so much.

Jude Law (38:17)

My pleasure.

Tonya Mosley (38:18)

Jude Law stars in the new Netflix series Black Rabbit. Coming up, our rock critic Ken Tucker reviews three new albums to listen to this fall. This is FRESH air. There's a lot of new music being released this fall, and rock critic Ken Tucker has chosen to showcase new songs by three very different acts. Big Thief has a new album, as does Zach Top, a young country singer with roots in traditional country music. There's also Icelandic Chinese singer Lei Vey, who brings a classical music and jazz influence to her pop songs. Here's Ken's review of this eclectic gathering.

Music Clips / Singers (38:55)

In the arms of the one I love. She'll see in pictures of another from the future or in the past what's lost or waiting.

Ken Tucker (39:10)

Few bands have been as widely acclaimed in recent years as Big Thief, whose signature sound is the haunting voice of Adrian Lenker. Big Thief's new sixth album, I Just Played a bit from the title track. Double Infinity finds the former quartet now a trio, but its sound has expanded with the addition of backup singers for the first time. Whether Lenker's vocals needed backing is up for debate, but it certainly added a chummy collegial air to this album. On the song called Los Angeles, this band from Brooklyn, New York, soaks up the LA sun and heat and turns out a warm hymn to cross continental friendship.

Music Clips / Singers (39:51)

Los Angeles 3:33 Nothing on the stereo Dirty tear like Mona Lisa smiling in the half life mysteriously but still seriously, I'd follow you forever. Even without looking you call, we come together. Even without speaking, you say to me.

Ken Tucker (40:16)

You sang for me, where Adrian Lenker's voice swoops and soars. Zach Topp's voice has a pinched nasal tone that connects this 27 year old all the way back to classic country crooners like Lefty Frizzell and Webb Pierce. Top is enough of a craftsman that he can fill a funny song like Good Times and Tan Lines with so many amusing little details and vocal curlicues that it becomes something more substantial than a novelty.

J (40:48)

Little bit of dust, a little bit of smoke Baller in a Chevy down a gravel road headed to a spot everybody knows, Cannonball swinging from an old freight road. Talk good Times and tan lines Cold beer and summer nights that was all there was to life Good times and tan lines Good good times and tan.

Ken Tucker (41:17)

Lines Zach Top's big hit singles and new album Ain't In It For My Health signal a shift in country music which has spent recent years emulating hip hop rhythms. Top is making popular a new variation on the neo traditionalist country music of the 1990s, TOP addresses the gap between hipster country and his own retro style in a disarmingly direct manner. On Country Boy Blues.

J (41:54)

I shined up my pickup and slipped on my go to town boots I hit music city like a good timing honky tonkin fool I've been walking for hours Starting to think it wasn't worth the trip.

Music Clips / Singers (42:20)

Oh.

J (42:21)

Cause I kinda feel like a dinosaur down on the Vegas strip yeah every spot in town's got a drink in a van why can I hear a damn country tune Hopping up and down and all around lower Broadway with these.

Ken Tucker (42:44)

Old country borders now let's take a big swerve from country to classical. Specifically, the classically trained cellist, pianist, guitar strumming singer, songwriter called Leve.

Music Clips / Singers (43:08)

Can'T help but notice all of the way.

J (43:17)

In.

Music Clips / Singers (43:18)

Which I filled myself if I fill the world all the same I don't think I'm pretty It's not up for debate A woman's best currency's her body, not her brain they try to tell.

Jude Law (43:47)

Me.

Music Clips / Singers (43:50)

Tell me I'm wrong But mirrors tell lies to me My mind just plays alone.

Ken Tucker (44:02)

With her smooth jazz phrasing and arrangements, the 26 year old leve has charmed millions who first became aware of her via her TikTok videos. Leve, on her new third album, A Matter of Time, cleverly melds her old school influences and and writes lyrics that have an invigorating sting to them. Listen, for example, to her witty put down of an egotistical guy called Mr. Eclectic.

Music Clips / Singers (44:29)

Bet you think you're so poetic, quoting epics and ancient prose. Truth be told, you're quite pathetic Mr. Eclectic Alan Poe.

Ken Tucker (44:53)

As different as these three acts are, what Big Thief, Zach Topp and Leve have in common is the way they succinctly summarize both the allure and the flaws of the people they've fallen in or out of love with. You end up either wishing you were the object of their admiration or glad you're not on the receiving end of their criticism.

Tonya Mosley (45:30)

Ken Tucker reviewed new music by Big Thief, Zach Topp and Laybay. If you'd like to catch up on interviews, you've missed, like our conversation with author Mary Roach on Scientific Breakthrough and Replacing Body Parts or New York Times Magazine reporter Robert Draper on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Check out our podcast. You'll find lots of Fresh Air interviews and to find out what's happening behind the scenes of our show and get our producers recommendations on what to watch, read and listen to. Subscribe to our free newsletter@why.org Fresh Air. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Brigger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shurrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Teresa Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Yakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly C.V. nesper. A consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson. Thea Chaloner directed today's show with Terry Gross. I'm Tonya Moseley.

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