Our 10 Top International Albums of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global sounds that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive language over the record's ten sections. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the repetition of a ongoing, driving refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, delivering tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and restrained, yet this austerity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. It is that justifies the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at uncanny reworkings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and hiss to generate a new, foreboding beat. Periodically atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging blend of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, pulling the listener into the warm soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
