Our 10 Greatest International Albums of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of global releases that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive drumming might not seem the most approachable listening experience. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating work. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive dialect throughout the record's 10 movements. The album references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the repetition of a continual, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and introspective, delivering tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and subtle, yet this simplicity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to resonate. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reworkings of archival audio. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of murk and hiss to produce a new, menacing beat. Periodically ambient and unsettling, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of favela street 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 particularly manic and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become oddly freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music to date. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, pulling the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
