Our Ten Best International Albums of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive drumming might not seem the easiest listening experience. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language over the record's ten sections. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, singing tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive compositions to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reimaginings of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of sludge and hiss to produce a new, menacing rhythm. At turns atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly echo.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in 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 especially frenetic and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become oddly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly engaging combination of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, drawing the listener into the warm soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's commanding high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They craft sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
