This Ten Top Global Albums of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. The work draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a continual, driving figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, singing delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vibrato over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this austerity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reimaginings of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of murk and noise to produce a novel, menacing beat. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become oddly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly compelling combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium 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 funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most diverse music yet. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, off-kilter spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
