For me music works only when I am in what I call "mechanical mode" i.e. when all the thinking etc is done and I am only left with doing code review, refactoring, cut paste rearrangement, comment editing etc. Sometimes it gets distracting even then but that usually means I haven't reached the mechanical mode yet.
Anyway, I have a set of songs that I turn to specifically for what you call 'working music'. These songs generally have a broody, even melancholic, feel laced with trance or psychedelic like aspects and there are no sharp rises or falls. In other words, these songs quickly drift into the background and won't interfere, even when they have lyrics. I play these at the lowest possible volume where I can just about hear them, almost as if they are coming from a concert a many kilometers away. And oh, this is my home office routine, not a workplace thing, as I like to hear songs from speakers and not headphones due to the concert thing. And this is usually an after 10.30 pm affair. And of course, played in a loop.
The main songs are these: Russian National Anthem, Israel National Anthem, Dexter Soundtrack - (Blood Theme, Wink), The Last of The Mohicans - I'll find you, Tom Petty - Last Dance with Mary Jane, Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower, Chris Isaak - Wicked Game, Doves' (Blue Crush soundtrack Firesuite, Rise, Here It Comes), Niel Young - Southern Man, Bob Dylan - Knocking on Heaven's Door, JJ Cale (Magnolia, The Sensitive Kind, Crying Eyes), House Soundtrack - Teardrop, Die Toten Hosen - Ich bin die Sehnsucht in dir (German), some country songs too.
