The idea of mechanically reproducing sound opens up countless revolutionary potentials. Recordings may not be able to replicate every aspect of a live performance, but they make it possible to bring music to the masses. This capacity for circulation makes it possible to spread creative ideas beyond any conception of the local. Through increasingly sophisticated and ethically fraught technologies of transmission, beginning with the radio and culminating, for the time being, in digitally streaming audio, music today has the power to move across space faster and easier than people can.
Of course, the recording industry is anything but a level playing field. As in any dimension of neoliberal society, it takes certain kinds of capital to push through to the forefront of public consciousness, and thanks to millennia of especially human-borne inequities, those are never equally accessible to everyone. In a world that seems to be increasingly driven by fears of sharing power, space, and resources across social and political borders, nonconformity in sounds and language can disadvantage brilliant artists. Mechanically reproduced music can move beyond its original time and space, but it still bears traces of its origins. While you’d have to be consciously and proudly xenophobic to call that a bad thing outright, the reality is that we often stick with what we know. It’s much more difficult for performers to achieve global success if they don’t find a way to either assimilate or appeal to the consumers with the most purchasing power.
There are, though, many possibilities beyond a monolithic mainstream. Enough distribution channels exist today that it is, while not easy, more possible for just about any artist to find an appreciative audience of some size without having to compromise entirely. The albums on this year’s Best of Global Music list are good examples. Each is in transit, a vessel for expressions detachable yet inextricable from its original geographic context. Celebrations of culture abound, performers playing with sounds of home and family from Caribbean islands to Tanzanian highlands and beyond.
As is virtually always the case in contemporary pop, though, no record here can be fairly reduced to a single terrestrial point of origin. All of the music here has grown from broad and intentional root systems. Finnish folk melds with dub and gospel. Jazz flows easily between Brazil and the United States. California surf rock laps against the hills of Colombia. Singers from across the vast and diverse region of West Africa come together in a spirit of coalition.
Much of the music here engages global issues even when it is readily identifiable in specific places. There are performers on this list who refuse to be silent on imperialism and its legacies or to turn away from the painful realities of war and genocide. Some even rise from the archives, sounding resistance in myriad ways decades after their initial recordings through layers of careful curation.
Back in 2016, when I first contributed to the PopMatters Best Music section, I argued for the “world music scene” to counter the isolationism gaining institutional power around the globe. Perhaps we could build a utopia on folk revivals, transcontinental fusions, and the careful curation of archival masterpieces. If nothing else, we could make connections that would blur the boundaries of familiar and strange while still celebrating an array of practices and histories.
Obviously, it was never going to be a cure. Eight years later, we still fear sharing power, space, and resources across social and political borders. We vote for those who promise to keep us from having to open our minds. We can’t stop killing each other. But music like the releases listed here shines light on an immeasurable gamut of ways of thinking, being, and doing, and that is worth saluting.
10. Milton Nascimento and Esperanza Spalding – Milton + Esperanza (Concord)
Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Milton Nascimento turned 82 in 2024, more than 40 years the senior of jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding, his collaborator on the aptly named album Milton + Esperanza. Both consummate creative minds, the two make for an effervescent pair here on covers and originals alike with the support of a transhemispheric crew of musicians and featured guests including Paul Simon, Dianne Reeves, Lianne La Havas, Maria Gadú, Guinga, Tim Bernardes, and Carolina Shorter (widow of Wayne Shorter). It’s a genuine delight as this utterly talented cast comes together in warm harmonies (literal and figurative) that make the most of their decades of experience and love for music.
Milton + Esperanza is one for the jazz annals, a vibrant album on which everyone involved is having a good time and understands the incredible fortune of being in one another’s presence. Few have a legacy that shines as brightly as Nascimento’s, and it’s a beautiful thing that he’s willing to share it in his golden years, especially so thronged by admirers as talented as Spalding.
9. Balthvs – Harvest (Mixto)
Bogotá-based trio Balthvs makes funky, guitar-driven psych pop with strong vintage surf vibes. On their fourth album, Harvest, the group also put cumbia beats to work and play with microtones in ways inspired by West Asian melodic modes. The result is new, shimmering combinations, all spiraling artfully through thick summer heat. As the title suggests, Harvest is an album of plenty, one to which each of the group’s members (guitarist Balthazar Aguirre, bassist Johanna Mercuriana, and drummer Santiago Lizcano) contribute equally.
While it’s easy to compare the group’s luscious and often instrumental grooves to acts like Khruangbin, Harvest displays a group of musicians, each masterful in their own right and as a whole. From the sinuous licks of haunting “Asha” to the sensuous drum fills and cymbal crashes of “Mango Season” and the lightweight funk of “Aio”, Balthvs have never sounded so tight as on gorgeous collective effort Harvest. They’ve set themselves a high bar, but it seems likely they’ll meet it time and time again as their star continues to rise.
8. El Khat – Mute (Glitterbeat)
The philosophical underpinnings of El Khat have always been audible in their work. Founded in the members’ hometown of Jaffa, El Khat have witnessed up close some of the most alarming and widely discussed recent large-scale violence in the world. They challenge the hegemonies behind them with self-made instruments of recycled material, melodies from multi-instrumentalist and frontman Eyal el Wahab’s Yemeni Jewish heritage, and often sharply satirical and political lyrics.
That underscores the group’s orientation against oppression and strongly in favor of open expression—radical values in an increasingly fractured world. Even the title of the new album, Mute, points to deeply held concerns about the annihilation of the disenfranchised by those in positions of power. Now based in Berlin, El Khat present some of their most trenchant music to date, and it’s captivating. Spreading vital social messages and Yemeni Jewish traditions, the music lays its creators’ viewpoints out plainly. Though that means taking a dim view of the future, it also makes for sonically thrilling work as the band refuse to be muted.
7. Various Artists – Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996 (Light in the Attic)
Produced against the grain of the state-sponsored Soviet recording industry, the music in the archival collection Even the Forest Hums contains stylistic myriads. Experiments in jazz, funk, rock, disco, and electronic music sit side by side, self-contained vignettes that come together to build a bigger picture of cultural turning points. Accompanied by a documentary and some of the most intricately designed and carefully detailed liner notes I’ve seen in a non-academic compilation, this is an album of elevated eclecticism. It celebrates the ingenuity of Ukrainian musicians in creating against the interests of the state, a tribute all the more meaningful for being released now, as Ukraine once again pushes against Russian invasion.
It’s also simply high-quality music. Each of the 18 gorgeous tracks featured here contributes to a complex overall sense of space and time, reflecting the increasingly dense interconnections between local and worldwide musical communities. Listening from start to finish reveals changes and continuities between styles and scenes, making for an exciting and immersive collection with much to unpack.
6. Delgrès – Promis le Ciel (PIAS)
A trio comprised of Pascal Danaë (guitar/dobro/voice), Rafgee (sousaphone), and Baptiste Brondy (drums), Delgrès rides the brassy Caribbean currents between New Orleans, Guadeloupe, and Paris once again on their third album Promis le Ciel. Their latest is an especially elevated iteration of their particular bluesy rock style, with a range of moods coming through especially powerfully in frontman Danaë’s impassioned vocal delivery.
There’s an especially melancholy sway to the melodies of Promis le Ciel that heightens the pathos inherent in its lyrics; a consistent theme is the struggle against colonial violence that still permeates life in the French Caribbean. The album’s title track is one example, a heart-pounding account of kidnapping, enslavement, forced baptism, and broken promises: “On m’a promis le ciel / En attendant chui sur la terre.” (I was promised heaven / Meanwhile, I’m on earth.) There’s a well-cultivated Mississippi Delta edge to Delgrès’s twangy sounds and a rightly unrelenting call for justice in their words. Promis le Ciel is a hard-hitting and well-polished expansion of their already impressive repertoire.
5. Joose Keskitalo and the Mystic Revelation of Teppo Repo – Tähdet Palaavat Paikoilleen (Helmi Levyt)
Born in the heart of Finnish lake country, singer-songwriter Joose Keskitalo draws heavy inspiration from rural landscapes, American blues, and gospel, and esoteric imagery on the new album Tähdet Palaavat Paikoilleen (“The Stars Return to Their Places”). With the help of spiritual jazz/dub band the Mystic Revelation of Teppo Repo, whose name alone evokes Rastafarian music and Eastern European folk song (Teppo Repo was a well-known master of the Ingrian shepherd flute), Keskitalo preaches with an understated fervor, telling stories of death, fish, and the supernatural from the birch-strewn borderlands.
Dreamlike lyrics, appealing pop music structure, and even a splash of funk (“Kuolema Nousee Ikkunoihimme” brings an especially compelling organ groove, and horn flourishes to the table even as it warns of the inevitability of death) make for a satisfying and often surprising mix. Unpretentious, accessible, and yet tonally innovative, Tähdet Palaavat Paikoilleen is a thing of rare and blissfully off-kilter beauty.
4. Hermanos Gutiérrez – Sonido Cósmico (Easy Eye Sound)
Playing together as Hermanos Gutiérrez since 2015, brothers Alejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez returned this year with Sonido Cósmico, an album as expansive as it sounds. Once again, the Swiss duo teams up with Dan Auerbach of Easy Eye Sounds to draw on ideas of Nashville, Hollywood, and their mother’s native Ecuador. This time, though, they don’t stop there, instead taking to the stars as they evoke the open spaces of an imagined Wild West and the even greater mystique of the final frontier.
As usual, the core of the Hermanos Gutiérrez sound is comprised of broadly echoing guitars and sparing percussion, though delicate touches of plugged-in keys are vital to lofting the album heavenward. No matter how spacey it becomes, though, the brothers play with a human warmth; their intricate fingerpicking and references to pan-American aesthetics keep it all feeling very much alive. It’s been a big year for the brothers, who played Coachella this past April, and Sonido Cósmico is a release big enough to keep them moving forward.
3. Les Amazones d’Afrique – Musow Danse (Real World)
Seven years since their first international release, collective Les Amazones d’Afrique have surpassed the gimmicky label of supergroup and become something far finer. On Musow Dance, the lineup has shifted once again (the ensemble is made up of a rotating cast of West African stars), and the energy is as vital as ever as the group continues to celebrate womanhood over some of their most engaging beats to date.
Joining Malian cofounder Mamani Keïta here are Fafa Ruffino (Benin), Kandy Guira (Burkina Faso), Dobet Gnahoré (Côte d’Ivoire), and new addition Alvie Bitemo (Congo-Brazzaville), with Nneka (Nigeria) making brief cameos. Each member brings their untouchable style to the table, belting, smoldering, floating, and doing it all with finesse. Jacknife Lee’s plugged-in production binds it together, giving Les Amazones a beat-heavy canvas to make maximum impact. Whether in solo pieces or as parts of an entire ensemble, each member shines on Musow Danse, pop divas in the best possible way.
2. Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice (Matador)
Even by Nigerien guitar wizard Mdou Moctar’s high standards, Funeral for Justice is extraordinary. Moctar’s always blazing guitar work drives forward searing anti-colonial messages essential to the present sociopolitical moment, making this perhaps his most vital and energetic album so far–and that’s saying something. Alongside him are drummer Souleymane Ibrahim, rhythm guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane, and bassist/producer Mikey Coltun, all of whom keep up admirably with Moctar’s shredding.
More than any previous Mdou Moctar album, it feels alive: Moctar and his whole band are in the room with their listeners, fanning the flames of righteous resolve. The Saharan tishoumaren guitar style at the foundation of Mdou Moctar’s music has often been glossed for international listeners as “desert blues,” but at this funeral, there’s no time for mourning. Moctar and his cohort are here to remind us that resistance is alive as long as we keep fighting, and Funeral for Justice is a vow never to forget that the struggle must continue.
1. The Zawose Queens – Maisha (Real World)
On their debut album, Maisha, Pendo, and Leah Zawose take the lead musical roles typically held by men in Wagogo music and step into them with relish. Singing and playing with friends and family as support, they relate stories of life, family, and history with aplomb, lively against beds of subtly contemporary production by Oli Barton-Wood and Tom Excell. Fairly stripped-down in terms of electronic effects, Maisha lets genuine musicianship shine, taking care to only add elements that benefit the central Queens and their collaborators.
Maisha is a triumph, an endlessly satisfying assemblage of textures and timbres. The Zawose Queens emerge as deservedly confident performers who know how to deliver the messages on their minds, honoring the past and engaging every moment of the present with full hearts and nimble voices. Each instrument, human or otherwise, sings with a clarity that draws attention to the multitude of sounds that populate the album’s ecosystem, from the metallic buzzing of ilimba and the soothing hollow of hand drums to the sharp pangs of wide-ranging strings and voices unbound. It’s a work of vigor and grace.