As a leading culture publication established in the UK in 1953, New Musical Express (NME) reviews always carry significant influence in the music market. Recently, as part of the year-end summaries, NME has released its top picks, including a “25 Best Asian albums of 2023” list.
While 4 female K-pop representatives made the list with NewJeans taking the lead, there was surprisingly no male representatives.
NewJeans takes the lead
In NME’s “25 Best Asian albums of 2023”, four K-pop albums belonging to 4th gen female groups were included, with the names and rankings as below:
19. KISS OF LIFE – “Kiss Of Life”
12. tripleS LOVElution – ‘ↀ’
3. LE SSERAFIM – “Unforgiven”
1. NewJeans – “Get Up”
In particular, NME praised KISS OF LIFE for their “terrific voices, strong songwriting and great music, all set to the sounds of ’90s R&B”, and tripleS LOVElution’s “ↀ” as “a glossy thrill ride of emotions and experimentation, deftly playing with trendy sounds like UK garage and future bass”.
Once again, HYBE affirms its leading position in the K-pop industry with LE SSERAFIM and NewJeans being acknowledged by NME.
Regarding LE SSERAFIM’s “Unforgiven”, NME praised the “dexterous and unlimited ease” that reinforces the girl group’s constant songs that “push their boundaries”.
Meanwhile, NewJeans, who had a brilliant year with consecutive hits, enjoyed high praise form industry experts with their EP “Get Up”, described by NME as an album which “offer a way out of K-pop’s most widespread tropes – maximalism, chorus drops, drowsy ballads – and slips right into standard-bearing territory.”
Before this, NewJeans was listed as the only K-pop representative in Rolling Stone’s Top 10 best songs of 2023 list with “Super Shy” (#6). The discerning music review site Pitchfork also chose “Super Shy” as the best dance MV of 2023 due to the harmonious blend of visuals and sound.
On the other hand, no male K-pop representative were included in this list of NME, shocking many fans, although mixed “multi-national alternative K-pop group” Balming Tiger were included at No.9
Source: NME, K14
