This Ten Best Worldwide Albums of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide releases that pushed boundaries. We explore ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive language across the record's 10 movements. The work references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the reiteration of a continual, driving refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive world.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, longing vocal technique against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to resonate. It is well worth the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of sludge and hiss to create a new, menacing groove. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging blend of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque 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-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, quirky twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the liturgical vocals 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 woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
