This 10 Greatest Global Albums of the Year 2025

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

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

An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language throughout the record's 10 movements. His composition draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, driving figure. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.

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

After an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, longing vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The production is minimal and restrained, yet this minimalism provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to resonate. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.

Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down

Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reworkings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of murk and noise to generate a novel, foreboding beat. At turns ambient and discomfiting, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.

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

Sheer intensity is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly freeing.

6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually compelling combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

Number Five: Enji – Sonor

Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the soft jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word 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. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.

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

Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a new, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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. It is Pim