Our 10 Finest Worldwide Albums of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of international music that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion might not seem the easiest musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language over the record's ten sections. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a persistent, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, yearning vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and understated, yet this austerity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to shine through. It is well worth the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of murk and hiss to generate a new, menacing beat. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably captivating blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They craft smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that impart a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
