This Ten Best International Albums of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming may not appear the most approachable listening experience. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The album references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a persistent, driving figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and introspective, singing delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this austerity creates the ideal canvas for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to shine through. It is that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of murk and static to generate a new, menacing groove. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably compelling fusion of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft jazz-pop 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 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges 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 commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating 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 syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
