This is exactly it for me. For any task that has to do with words - writing, reading, code - lyrics are devastating. Even “lyric like” music, where an instrument is imitating speech for a track, grabs too much of my attention for me to focus.

For most tasks, lyric free chill hop is a perfect balance. It replaces the chaos of my environment with a predictable backdrop that can fade out of focus.

But for tasks that require extreme focus, like putting together a novel (to me) algorithm or exploring a new code base, even chillhop is too much. I have to find a place with absolute silence - anything that grabs my attention is devastating to the task at hand.