This Ten Best International Albums of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international sounds that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating piece. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive language across the record's ten sections. The album draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a continual, pulsing refrain. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, delivering delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this austerity provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to shine through. It is that justifies the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit excels at haunting reworkings of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of murk and static to create a new, menacing beat. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the operative word for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging fusion of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most diverse music to date. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft 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 sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a new, unconventional twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
