What effect do album aesthetics have on listening?

Yeah, album art is certainly important. I was listening to a track from Agalloch's Marrow of the Spirit earlier and that album art perfectly exemplifies and complements what is felt through the music. And look at Devin Townsend's Deconstruction, all of the album art helps to visualize the album as a great chaotic metal machine centered all around HevyDevy himself. 

This is mainly a person to person question, because I feel it's definitely subjective.

I always try to listen to music free of bias. That is, without any preconceptions about how the music will sound. That being said, I think the album art inherently grasps onto what I'm listening to in my mind and influences how it sounds. For example, take these two Isis albums:





Whenever I listen to Panopticon, I can't help by thinking of a very moody atmosphere, with lots of dark clouds and mists, and plenty of blues. Likewise, whenever I listen to In the Absence of Truth, I feel awash in an abstract atmosphere of reds, oranges, and tinges of yellow. I can't help but think of the former as much, much more darker of an album, with the latter being mostly just atmospheric and haunting, even though looking at it more objectively they're both pretty dark albums.

I have to question whether this affects how I interpret the quality of the albums, because to be honest, I wonder if I'd think of things differently if neither albums had any visuals associated with them.

I feel this is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if care has been taken to present it correctly. After all, album art should be a reflection of the music inside. So there really shouldn't be a problem if the art is on the right album, as it should definitely serve its purpose thoroughly.

What do y'all think? Do album aesthetics (covers, booklets included, and even band photos at the time) affect how you visualize or interpret? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Do you have anything interesting to say?