British magazine NME recently announced their picks for Best 2022 Kpop songs, with various mentions of HYBE Label artists.
HYBE Labels artists such as SEVENTEEN, TXT, ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM, and NewJeans were selected for NME’s “Top 25 Best Kpop songs of 2022”, which was announced on December 20th (local time).
Among those, girl groups NewJeans and LE SSERAFIM both nail multiple entries, proving the power of HYBE girl groups. In particular, NewJeans’ “Hype Boy” and “Attention” are ranked 1st and 7th, whilst LE SSERAFIM’s “ANTIFRAGILE”, “Impurities”, and “FEARLESS” are named at 5th, 11th, and 21st.
HYBE’s boy groups also do extremely well, with TXT’s “Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go” in 12th, ENHYPEN’s “Polaroid Love” in 18th, and SEVENTEEN’s “Shadow” in 20th.
Out of 25 songs, 8 belong to HYBE Labels’ artists.
About New Jeans, NME said, “Few K-pop rookie groups achieve instant fame and public recognition upon their debut. But this year, a handful of new girl groups hit that jackpot – NewJeans being one of them.”
The magazine also added, “Thankfully, 2022 brought us NewJeans, who debuted out of the blue with the effortlessly cool ‘Attention’, and while we scrambled to learn who this mysterious quintet was, the track earwormed its way into one of 2022’s most essential replays”, and called “Hype Boy” the “breakout song” of NewJeans’s first EP.
“HYBE’s first girl group hit the planet of K-pop like a meteor in May, proving that outcomes sometimes do match expectations,” NME wrote about LE SSERAFIM, and called the group music “instantly memorable despite its subdued approach”.
The magazine also described TXT’s “Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go” as a song that “shake off the devastation of heartbreak” and “looking towards brighter days to come over a flurry of retro synths and deliciously choppy drum beats.”
Regarding ENHYPEN’s “Polaroid Love”, NME said, “Objects as commonplace as polaroid photos – devoid of pretence or embellishments like “trendy filters”, as they point out – can still encapsulate the complexities that come with love.”
Finally, NME commented on SEVENTEEN’s Shadow, saying “Shivery drum ’n’ bass yields to lightweight chimes, while gentle murmurs become full-throated chants. On paper, it sounds like all-out war; in reality, ‘Shadow’ finds perfect harmony.”
On the other hand, the full list of NME’s Top 25 “Best Kpop songs of 25” include:
- NewJeans’ “Hype Boy”
- B.I. x Soulja Boy, “BTBT” featuring DeVita
- Taeyeon’s “INVU”
- IVE’s “After LIKE”
- LE SSERAFIM’s “Antifragile”
- IVE’s “Love Dive”
- NewJeans’ “Attention”
- Billlie’s “GingaMingaYo (the strange world)”
- ATEEZ’s “Cyberpunk”
- TripleS Acid Angel from Asia’s “Generation”
- LE SSERAFIM’s “Impurities”
- TXT’s “Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go”
- Sunmi’s “Heart Burn”
- Lee Chan Hyuk’s “Panorama”
- Junny’s “Color Me” featuring Chung Ha
- Key’s “Another Life”
- aespa’s “Illusion”
- ENHYPEN’s “Polaroid Love”
- WJSN Chocome’s “Super Yuppers!”
- SEVENTEEN’s “Shadow”
- LE SSERAFIM’s “Fearless”
- Nayeon’s “Pop!”
- Balming Tiger’s “Sexy Nukim” featuring RM
- Stray Kids’ “Maniac”
- ATEEZ’s “Guerrilla”
Source: Daum, NME
