LISTEN: DIIV and Tomberlin Team Up to Cover Low’s “Words”

Twenty-five years after its release, two downbeat heavyweights put a new spin on the single.
LISTEN: DIIV and Tomberlin Team Up to Cover Low’s “Words”

Twenty-five years after its release, two downbeat heavyweights put a new spin on the single.

Words: Mike LeSuer

December 17, 2019

There isn’t much overlap between the glazed-over dream pop of DIIV and the intimate folk of Tomberlin, but a mutual appreciation for slowcore pioneers Low appears to have united the artists, whose new collaboration sounds less like either of their outputs than it does the band they’re so faithfully covering. A recent in-studio SiriusXMU session saw the pair teaming up to play Low’s dreary “Words” from the group’s 1994 debut I Could Live in Hope with impressive accuracy.

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The harmonies accomplished by Zachary Cole Smith and Sarah Beth Tomberlin perfectly mirror those of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker on the original, while the restrained percussion and haunting acoustic guitar sound directly lifted from Low’s version. With both bands keeping busy on tour the latter half of 2019—DIIV in support of their recent LP Deceiver, Tomberlin with last year’s debut At Weddings—“Words” proves a soothing close to a busy year.

Stream the track below, and catch both bands when they head back out on tour next year (DIIV’s UK dates here, Tomberlin’s U.S./Canada dates here).