Our 10 Best International Albums of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of global releases that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a strangely alluring piece. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the repetition of a continual, thrumming figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and introspective, delivering soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to take center stage. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of sludge and static to generate a fresh, menacing groove. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly liberating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably captivating combination of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece 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 counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
