The Ten Greatest Global Albums of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global releases that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. His composition references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the repetition of a persistent, thrumming refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and introspective, singing delicate melodies atop 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 uses a wavering, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is lean and understated, yet this austerity creates the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of distortion and noise to produce a new, foreboding beat. Periodically atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly captivating blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the warm soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a new, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
