This Ten Best Worldwide Albums of 2025

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international sounds that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.

10. The Percussionist 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 transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten sections. His composition draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.

Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, singing delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is sparse and understated, yet this minimalism provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to resonate. It is well worth the long anticipation.

Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of sludge and hiss to produce a novel, menacing beat. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal memory.

Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become strangely freeing.

Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly captivating fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving disco bass groove. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

5. Enji – Sonor

From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the gentle 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 energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow

Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia 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 amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They craft smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that impart a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim