I find Carly's songs mostly quite enjoyable, although not all that deep. The primary concern of the vast majority of her songs is her emotional and love life with the various lovers she's had...I would assume, quite a few of them. Yeah, she's got emotinal issues that are obvious in her songs, and she has admitted to the same in interviews. I agree that it's pretty light stuff compared to the far more meaty and universally meaningful material put out by writers like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Leonard Cohen, to name three who are really outstanding. Nevertheless, I like the way Carly Simon performs her songs in any case. If that bothers you, sue me. ;-D

If I was going to pick a female singer/songwriter who is absolutely brilliant, second to none in my opinion, that would be Mary Chapin Carpenter. You cannot write songs better than she does. I would say the same of Joni Mitchell. One thing that all great songwriters have in common...they have each come up with a few masterpieces that are so unique and distinctive that you can't imagine anyone else who could ever have written them.