This Ten Top Global Albums of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of international music that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive language throughout the record's ten parts. The work channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a persistent, pulsing refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, yearning vocal technique over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this minimalism provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit excels at eerie reworkings of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of murk and hiss to generate a new, menacing groove. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating 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 frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably captivating blend of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, off-kilter spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. 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 dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
