[ISO-morphism]

I've found that novelty, (new-to-me at least) to be much more distracting than the presence of lyrics, whether that be a new artist or a new song order. As my unit of listening is usually an album, I'll briefly notice album transitions, and shuffle on an album will be jarring, but the 2nd or 3rd time I've heard an album it's successfully backgrounded for the duration of the album.

[madcaptenor]

Seconded. When Spotify finishes an album it follows it with "album radio" which is an auto-generated playlist based on the album - that transition is jarring for me if I'm using it as background music for work, because suddenly my brain is "ooh! something new! let's pay attention!"