Members of AccountingWEB.co.uk have brought fellow professionals a bit of musical relief during the busy tax season with a Spotify playlist tailored to their tastes and professional concerns. Songs for Self Assessment Season is a 2-hour, 40-song playlist compiled interactively on Spotify with contributions from music enthusiasts in AccountingWEB’s Humour and Fun discussion group.
Accountants and tax advisers regularly work 14- and 16-hour days in January, with this year’s snow adding to their woes. When he couldn’t get to the office after the recent blizzards, one AccountingWEB member said he was preparing to take a sleeping bag into work to ensure he could beat the 31 deadline and save his clients the £100 late-filing penalty.
The Spotify playlist reflects the full sweep of emotions accountants experience as pressure builds and encompasses many musical styles, from Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rocky blues treatment of George Harrison’s anthem ‘Taxman’ to the wistful pop of Pilot’s January (“Sick and tired you've been hanging on me”) and ‘Last of the Melting Snow’ from 2009’s surprise package, The Leisure Society.
The frustrations of dealing with delinquent clients and an unsympathetic HMRC are explored (‘Shot By Both Sides’ - Magazine linking into Blondie’s ‘Hanging On The Telephone’), then things turn a bit manic as deadline day stress increases (‘Time is Running Out’ - Muse; ‘Going Under’ - Evanescence). Relief begins to show as returns are completed (‘Another One Bites The Dust’ - Queen), the deadline is met and clients pay up (‘Beautiful Day’ - U2).
For those who are not members of Spotify, here is the playlist as it now stands:
- Max From The Income Tax - Sophie Tucker
- Taxman - Stevie Ray Vaughan
- Income Tax - Dub Adams
- Tax Return - New Mexican Disater Squad
- January - Pilot
- The Last Of The Melting Snow - The Leisure Society
- Money - The Flying Lizards
- Pocket Calculator - Kraftwerk
- Spreadsheet - Sarah Donner
- Money, Money, Money - Abba
- Shot By Both Sides - Magazine
- Taxman, Mr Thief - Cheap Trick
- Hanging On The Telephone - Blondie
- We Have All The Time In The World - Louis Armstrong
- She Don’t Care About Time - The Byrds
- Return To Sender - Elvis Presley
- Time Is Running Out - Muse
- Dear Mr Fantasy - Traffic
- Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
- Misery Business - Paramore
- Pile Up - She Keeps Bees
- Panic - The Smiths
- I Want Out - Pat Benatar
- Going Under - Evanescence
- You Ain’t Seen Nothing yet - Bachman-Turner-Overdrive
- Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now - The Smiths
- At The Edge - Stiff Little Fingers
- (t)Axe Victim - Be Bop Deluxe
- 19th Nervous Breakdown - The Rolling Stones
- You Can Move A Mountain - Anton Barbeau
- Another One Bites The Dust - Queen
- Get It Right Next Time - Gerry Rafferty
- Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground
- Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks
- Stormy Monday Blues - T-Bone Walker
- Tax Payin’ Blues - J.B. Lenoir
- Cash On The Barrelhead - The Louvin Brothers
- My Money - Bap Kennedy
- I’m So Glad - Cream
- Beautiful Day - U2
Feel free to add your suggestions below!