The Ten Best International Albums of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating work. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. The work references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, thrumming figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and introspective, delivering delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vocal technique over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to shine through. This is a record well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reworkings of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of murk and hiss to produce a novel, menacing groove. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, adding everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly captivating combination of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They create sinuous, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. 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 rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
