The Ten Best International Albums of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive vocabulary across the record's ten parts. The work references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this minimalism creates the perfect canvas for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to take center stage. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and static to create a new, sinister groove. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly captivating combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration 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 usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, pulling the listener into the warm soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a new, off-kilter spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
