This Ten Greatest Worldwide Albums of the Year 2025

Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide music that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.

Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating piece. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The work draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive universe.

Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember

Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and ruminative, singing delicate melodies over the string arrangements 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 vibrato over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and subtle, yet this austerity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.

Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down

From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and static to generate a fresh, sinister rhythm. Periodically ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly memory.

7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become strangely exhilarating.

6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually engaging fusion of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the harmonium 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 walking disco bassline. It's a party blend created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.

5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance

Mongolian singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.

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

Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a new, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim