Música, Gramática, Gimnasia (Spanish: [ˈmusika ɡɾaˈmatika ximˈnasja], lit. 'Music, Grammar, Gymnastics') is the second studio album by Chilean indie pop duo Dënver, released on October 27, 2010, by Cazador.
The first album by Dënver, Totoral, had an austere production, recorded in a home studio with limited time and resources. Additionally, at that time both members of the band lacked extensive knowledge in music production, and relied heavily on Felipe "Pondie" Aravena. However, for this album, the band had greater ambition: they aimed for more elaborate instrumentation, with additional guitars, basses, strings, and orchestral arrangements. By this point, Mariana Montenegro had already studied music at college, so she was able to communicate her ideas more clearly to everyone involved in the recording. For the album, the duo worked with renowned producer Cristian Heyne, who provided guidance and helped them polish their sound to help them materialize what they had in mind.
The album title originated during online research about Ancient Greek culture, where they encountered references to these three disciplines as foundational subjects taught to children in Ancient Greece, astray felt the concepts aligned closely with the themes and artistic intentions of the record.
In retrospective, the duo described Música, Gramática, Gimnasia as an album marked that emerged organically, noting that the duo had no fixed recipe or formula for creating it. He credited producer Cristián Heyne with playing a key role in shaping the final product, particularly through his involvement in curating the track listing. Mahan also pointed to the song titles as contributing to the album's character and observed that the record captured an innocence of that period, preserving a sense of youthful purity that defined its enduring appeal.
Música, Gramática, Gimnasia is a good indie pop album by the Chilean duo Dënver. The songs are in Spanish, so I only get a bit of their lyrical content, but I'm glad there's another Non-English album on the list. The music varies between soft indie pop and some electronic influences. The songs are beautifully orchestrated with a lot of instruments. It's a great listening on a lazy sunny Sunday as a breakfast treat.
Firstly I get why someone added this on the list albums outside of the US and UK are lacking and a more definite version of the list would include a more diverse range of countries! Honestly this surprised me, looking at the cover I thought it’d be some tepid acoustic album but not at all, this is Chilean synth pop, like mag bay but a decade earlier.
I did a (probably) wrong translation of the track names if anyone wanted to know….
1. My first gold 2.Giant waves 3.Whatever you want 4.Diane Keaton (was already called this)
5. The teenagers
6. The bikers 7.Feedback (was already called this) 8.Cartagena (is the name of a city so no change) 9.Second skill 10.Central coast
11. In the middle of a party
This is the lyrics to the first track:
Pensar que a veces se pierde y otras se gana
En que me ves en un tele a color desde tu casa
En que puedo resbalar desde las barras
En que conocerás a alguien este fin de semana
En que si gano te daré la medalla
And here it is translated:
To think that sometimes you lose and other times you win
That you see me on a color TV from your house
That I could slip off the bars
That you’ll meet someone this weekend
That if I win, I’ll give you the medal
There’s barely any lyrics to this track but my god it’s a great opener!
Los adolescents has an amazing riff
Feedback has a brilliant chorus
Litoral Central is such a style change, sounds so much darker than the rest of it, really one of my favourites
Honestly it’s my favourite foreign language album I’ve ever heard, oh and btw the title translates to music grammar gymnastics!
Something wholly unique, the user list doesn’t doesn’t steer towards, pop, electronica, or international LPs so having all of those in one feels pretty exciting. The album is well-crafted and upbeat, even though it starts to sag a bit in the middle as things get samey that same is way different than the usual fare for this list. Good add!
That was the Jurassic Park theme in "Lo Que Quieras", right? I'm not imagining things.
Anyways, pretty good but forgettable indie pop. To the pretty good but forgettable indie pop pile it goes.
Yeah pretty decent Chilean electro-disco. I wonder if the funk riffs and airy mood sometimes found in this LP would appeal to my "chum" Émile, given that he is quite into that sort of thing (among other music styles). As far as I'm concerned, some of the vocals sound a little too "cheesy" for my tastes, but I readily recognize that this music is well-executed for what it is.
3/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums.
8/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3)
----
Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465
Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288
Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336
----
Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 80
Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 102
Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 206 (including this one)
----
Émile, j'ai vu ta dernière réponse. J'essaie de trouver le temps de te laisser la mienne dans les jours qui viennent !
Read more on Wikipedia