Q: Can that be applied to every artist? Is it best to just listen to a band's album cuz "fuck it?" as opposed to because "they looked cool," or "they had a cool album cover?"
A: music discovery certainly works best when you are in that welcoming mood. because, at first, what else do you have? it's just the picture, the image, the title, .... you gotta start somewhere. so, indeed, these superficial attractors are a natural starting point. In fact, on some level i believe music actually needs something to latch onto, otherwise it doesn't even work so well. We've all had the experience of enjoying music in a video game. or maybe you'd go to a thrift store and see an obscure reggae record from 1973 that just looks magical. so you take it home and listen to it. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not, but being enchanted by how-and-where you found it, and the cover image, title, etc, certainly puts you in a welcoming mood, which will help you embrace all that may be good about it