The 10 Best International Albums of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that expanded horizons. We explore ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a strangely alluring album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language across the record's ten sections. His composition references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a persistent, thrumming refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, longing vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and subtle, yet this simplicity offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to take center stage. It is well worth the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reworkings of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of distortion and noise to produce a new, sinister beat. At turns ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the key term for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly engaging blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's powerful high register 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 vibrant new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, quirky interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
