Our Ten Greatest International Albums of 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international sounds that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming might not seem the easiest listening experience. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring piece. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The work draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a persistent, driving refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, singing delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, longing vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and understated, yet this austerity offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to resonate. The album proves to be well worth the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reimaginings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of murk and static to generate a new, sinister rhythm. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly afterimage.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly captivating fusion of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a party blend created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
