This Ten Best Worldwide Records of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring work. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The work channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, thrumming figure. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and subtle, yet this simplicity offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in eerie reimaginings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of murk and noise to create a fresh, menacing beat. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles 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 boasts a driving walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the soft 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 energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, pulling the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They create sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a fresh, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating 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 theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
