Five K-pop songs managed to secure spots on NME's year-end list of "The 50 Best Songs of 2022." Read on to know which K-pop releases they are.

NME's '50 Best Songs of 2022': TXT, LE SSERAFIM & Sunmi Enter Year-End List

On Dec. 5 local time, British publication NME revealed its annual roundup of their choices for the 50 best songs of the year, which covers different genres.

One of them is TXT's "Thursday's Child Has Far To Go," a B-side off of the boy group's latest mini-album "minisode 2: Thursday's Child." This track is actually produced by member Beomgyu and sung by Soobin, Taehyun, and Beomgyu.

ALSO READ: '100 Best Albums of 2022': 3 K-pop Releases Land on Rolling Stone's List

Derrick Tan described TXT's "Thursday's Child Has Far To Go" as a "bright, bouncy bop" with "straightforward, feel-good melodies." He added that the three TXT members who performed the track "exuded positivity and optimism for the future following an emotional break-up."

He also quoted one line from the song: Today's hashtag: "break up"/ Then paste "glow up" next to it, which he considered a line "proving a stroke of genius."

READ MORE: TIME Selects Best K-pop Songs, Albums in First Half of 2022: Dreamcatcher, IVE, More!

LE SSERAFIM's "Impurities" is another K-pop song that made it to NME's "Best Songs of the 2022." Off of their latest mini-album "ANTIFRAGILE," "Impurities" was co-written by member Huh Yunjin.

Derrick Tan defined "Impurities" as a "cool, ethereal electro R&B song" where the girls "calmly declared that one's flaws are actually glorious testaments to life."

One spot on the list was occupied by Sunmi's "Heart Burn." Derrick Tan commented how Sunmi's best songs are the ones she made with frequent collaborator FRANTS (such as "Narcissism" and "Tail"). But he viewed "Heart Burn" as the female soloists way to get out of that "comfort zone."

He added, "Its flirty lyrics, delivered in her raspy vocal style, matched the growing blaze of a midsummer romance."

NME "50 Best Songs of 2022": IVE & NewJeans Make It to Annual Roundup

IVE's "LOVE DIVE" is also among the K-pop songs that successfully entered NME's "Best Songs of 2022" list. First, Karen Gwee commented on how 2022 has been the year of rookie girl groups achieving better results than expected.

She then described "LOVE DIVE" as IVE's "sophisticated seduction anthem" that is under the electro-pop genre. She continued that IVE's song "reels you back in again and again, whether it's to savor the confident, flirtatious lyrics and gorgeous backing melodies, or to pick up on all the sonic flourishes studding the production like diamonds in the rough."

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: SHINee Key's 'Bad Love,' SEVENTEEN's 'Anyone,' and More Chosen as the Best K-Pop Songs of 2021

The fifth and the highest-ranking K-pop song on NME's "50 Best Songs of 2022" is NewJeans' "Hype Boy," which ranked No. 26. Rhian Daly took note of how NewJeans' debut "provided a refreshing change of pace" in a period where lots of pop groups "feel like they're chasing the same sounds, styles, and attitudes."

Rhian then said that "Hype Boy" was the "jewel in their crown" and that it contains an "immediately addictively combination" of 90's R&B and modern pop production.

She further wrote, "And a chorus so cool and catchy you had no choice but to join the rising four-piece in longing for their 'hype boy.'"

Congratulations to all the K-pop artists that landed on NME"s year-end list!

What were your favorite K-pop songs of 2022? Share with us in the comment box below!

For more K-Pop news, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article

Written by Maria Scott