This 10 Greatest Global Albums of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language across the record's ten parts. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a ongoing, thrumming refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, delivering soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and subtle, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to resonate. It is well worth the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of distortion and static to produce a fresh, foreboding groove. Periodically ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly freeing.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually captivating fusion of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, drawing the listener into the warm soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a novel, off-kilter spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
