The Ten Top International Albums of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide releases that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming may not appear the most accessible musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive vocabulary across the record's ten parts. The album references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing motif. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, delivering tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and subtle, yet this minimalism offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive compositions to take center stage. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of murk and static to create a fresh, foreboding rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the celebratory party music of cumbia into a persistent, spectral afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered gem. 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 fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music so far. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range 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 sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They craft slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a novel, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
