'The New York Times' Picked 5 Essential Taylor Swift Songs—and I Don't Agree With Any of Them

The New York Times Magazine recently published a list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters. After polling 250+ industry veterans and debating amongst six Times critics, the names were revealed. As expected, it was littered with the greats: Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Paul Simon, Missy Elliott, Lionel Richie, Dolly Parton, Carole King. And, of course, Taylor Swift.

To accompany each entry, the Times offered a list of five essential tracks by each artist. For Swift, they chose "Our Song," "Fifteen," "Love Story," "Dear John" and "Mirrorball." The metrics employed to make this determination are unclear, so I will humbly assert that I do not think they got it quite right.

Growing up, Swift soundtracked my life—both because I like her music and because in my parents' house, I had two options: Taylor or Christian radio. Name an album and I can tell you the period of my life or where I was. Blasting Red barreling up I5 from LA to San Francisco with my mom. Spending Christmas with my family in Palm Springs with Speak Now in the background. Singing at the top of my lungs with my friends to Fearless in middle school. Spending the best (and hardest) year of my life in Paris and seeing the Lover posters tacked up across the metro.

While I'd agree with "Our Song, "Fifteen" and "Love Story" being canon selections, I think it was absolutely bonkers that they didn't include "All Too Well" (the original and ten-minute track Swift re-released in 2021). Aside from the fact that I can scream every line like my own heart is breaking, "All Too Well" is just Swift at her absolute peak (followed closely by her indie-pop run with folklore and evermore, which I think might be two of her best albums for writing and world-building alone). Sure, the Times gave it a shout-out in the profile, but the song is glaringly absent from the five-track lineup. If you can't recognize the greatness and searing pain of a line like "You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath," what are we even doing?!

If it were up to me, my essential Swift tracks would be, in addition to "All Too Well," "Enchanted," "Lover," "You Belong With Me" and "champagne problems." They're a combination of the best writing she's done and plain old nostalgia I have for my childhood. Because really, Swift is so prolific it's impossible to boil it down to five songs. There are her five greatest hits we could measure by awards won or number of streams. The five most lyrical, the five best bops that make you want to dance. But no matter which songs make your top five, I'm just saying...if "All Too Well" isn't up there, we've made a big mistake.