Our 10 Greatest Worldwide Albums of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that expanded horizons. We explore ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. The album draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a ongoing, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, singing delicate 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 uses a quivering, longing vocal technique over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and restrained, yet this minimalism provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in eerie reimaginings of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of distortion and static to produce a fresh, foreboding groove. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably captivating fusion of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged 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 remains personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a novel, quirky interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
