The Ten Best International Albums of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global releases that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive dialect across the record's ten sections. His composition channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and introspective, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and restrained, yet this austerity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to resonate. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reimaginings of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of murk and noise to produce a new, menacing beat. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably compelling combination of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion 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 features a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging 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 counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
