The 10 Greatest International Albums of 2025

Looking back on the musical landscape of international releases that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.

10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language throughout the record's 10 movements. His composition references Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the repetition of a ongoing, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.

9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.

8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down

Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reimaginings of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and noise to generate a fresh, foreboding groove. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, spectral afterimage.

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

Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street 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 frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.

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 gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually engaging blend of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

5. Enji – Resonance

From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music so far. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her singular voice.

Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a new, quirky twist to the Turkish psych sound.

3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim