This 10 Most Outstanding International Albums of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global releases that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. The work draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, singing delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vocal technique against north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this austerity offers the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of distortion and hiss to create a new, sinister groove. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit morphs the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: 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. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly compelling combination of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a novel, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
