The New York Times recently published a list of The ‘30 Greatest Living American Songwriters,’ compiled by polling more than 250 artists and experts and filtering the results through a panel of NYT critics.

Like all pop culture lists, this one generated a ton of controversy. Outrage over who was omitted, eye-rolling over who was included. Reminders that absent artists like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Drake are actually Canadian.

This week I’ll dig into the NYT list from a few different angles, then next week I’ll offer up my own list.

I’ll start off by listing the artists who show up on both the Times‘ list and mine:

Fiona Apple
I was pleasantly surprised to see Apple on the NYT list given her limited output — just five albums over 30 years. That’s the only factor keeping her from being a slam-dunk, in my opinion. Few artists marry melodicism, experimentation, and emotional rawness like Apple.

Lana Del Rey
I was less surprised to see Del Rey make the list, as her critical acclaim has skyrocketed with every album release. In a landscape where Main Pop Girls dominate and often bounce off each other stylistically, Del Rey is off on the side doing her own out-of-time thing.

Bob Dylan
Well, obviously.

Carole King
Equally obvious, for both the laundry list of hits she wrote for other people and for the enduring classics she recorded herself. You can’t release Tapestry and not make this list.

Smokey Robinson
I wrote about 28 Motown songs as part of Motown Weekends in the early days of this blog, and a shocking number of them were written by this legend.

Paul Simon
Back in 2011, I named him as my favorite songwriter and I don’t know if that opinion has changed in the last 15 years.

Bruce Springsteen
A rock-and-roll icon whose street-smart poetry and anthemic songs embody everything great and grim about America.

Taylor Swift
Some out-of-touch snobs were appalled to see Swift on this list. In fact, she’s one of the most obvious inclusions. Nobody in the modern era has moved more people more consistently through the power of songwriting.

Lucinda Williams
Williams doesn’t have the success of Springsteen but in many ways she is his counterpart when it comes to telling raw heartland stories with passion and pathos. Her five-album run from 1988 through 2003 is one of the greatest ever.