12-string guitar

Bumbumbum has the quality of a track that decides to be cheerful and then commits to that decision entirely. A bouncy organ provides the rhythmic and harmonic backbone with 60s-flavoured warmth, a synth bass adds modern character that stops the whole thing becoming pure pastiche, and a 12-string guitar contributes that characteristic jangly nostalgia that the decade perfected. The piece de resistance – as the original notes correctly identify – is the delicate female vocal, which adds a light, wordless melodic line that ties the whole arrangement together with a charm that purely instrumental versions of this kind of music rarely achieve. The overall effect is of a sunny day handled correctly.