diff --git a/web/src/app/_ui/cover-art.tsx b/web/src/app/_ui/cover-art.tsx
index ddd20c5..f9ba30d 100644
--- a/web/src/app/_ui/cover-art.tsx
+++ b/web/src/app/_ui/cover-art.tsx
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@
 
 import { useState } from "react";
 
-/** Album art from the Cover Art Archive (keyed by release-group MBID), loaded straight from
- *  their CDN by the browser — no backend, no MB API rate limit. Falls back to a placeholder
- *  when there's no MBID or no art. */
+/** Album art keyed by release-group MBID, served through /api/cover (which caches it on disk +
+ *  sends a long Cache-Control, so it isn't re-fetched from the Cover Art Archive on every
+ *  Library / Recently-Pressed render). Falls back to a placeholder when there's no MBID or art. */
 export function CoverArt({
   rgMbid,
   alt,
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ export function CoverArt({
     // eslint-disable-next-line @next/next/no-img-element
     <img
       className={cls}
-      src={`https://coverartarchive.org/release-group/${rgMbid}/front-${size}`}
+      src={`/api/cover/${rgMbid}?size=${size}`}
       alt={alt}
       loading="lazy"
       onError={() => setFailed(true)}
diff --git a/web/src/app/api/cover/[rgMbid]/route.test.ts b/web/src/app/api/cover/[rgMbid]/route.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd2b5dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/web/src/app/api/cover/[rgMbid]/route.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, afterEach, vi } from "vitest";
+import { mkdtempSync, rmSync, existsSync } from "node:fs";
+import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
+import { join } from "node:path";
+import { GET } from "./route";
+
+let cache: string;
+const original = process.env.LYRA_COVER_CACHE;
+const RG = "735bcee6-6be6-3957-af15-d21ba2bd355b";
+
+beforeEach(() => {
+  cache = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "lyra-cov-"));
+  process.env.LYRA_COVER_CACHE = cache;
+});
+afterEach(() => {
+  vi.unstubAllGlobals();
+  if (original === undefined) delete process.env.LYRA_COVER_CACHE;
+  else process.env.LYRA_COVER_CACHE = original;
+  rmSync(cache, { recursive: true, force: true });
+});
+
+const req = (rg: string) => new Request(`http://x/api/cover/${rg}?size=250`);
+const params = (rg: string) => ({ params: Promise.resolve({ rgMbid: rg }) });
+
+describe("GET /api/cover/[rgMbid]", () => {
+  it("400s a non-uuid", async () => {
+    expect((await GET(req("not-a-uuid"), params("not-a-uuid"))).status).toBe(400);
+  });
+
+  it("fetches from CAA once, then serves from the disk cache", async () => {
+    const fetchMock = vi.fn(async () => new Response(new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]), { status: 200 }));
+    vi.stubGlobal("fetch", fetchMock);
+
+    const r1 = await GET(req(RG), params(RG));
+    expect(r1.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(r1.headers.get("cache-control")).toContain("max-age");
+    expect(existsSync(join(cache, `${RG}-250.jpg`))).toBe(true);
+
+    const r2 = await GET(req(RG), params(RG));
+    expect(r2.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1); // second served from cache
+  });
+
+  it("caches a miss (404) so it isn't re-fetched", async () => {
+    const fetchMock = vi.fn(async () => new Response(null, { status: 404 }));
+    vi.stubGlobal("fetch", fetchMock);
+
+    expect((await GET(req(RG), params(RG))).status).toBe(404);
+    expect((await GET(req(RG), params(RG))).status).toBe(404);
+    expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1); // negative cache hit on the second
+  });
+});
diff --git a/web/src/app/api/cover/[rgMbid]/route.ts b/web/src/app/api/cover/[rgMbid]/route.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..13e2ba2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/web/src/app/api/cover/[rgMbid]/route.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+import { existsSync } from "node:fs";
+import { readFile, writeFile, mkdir } from "node:fs/promises";
+import { join } from "node:path";
+
+// Cover art proxy + cache. The browser used to hit the Cover Art Archive CDN directly on every
+// Library / Recently-Pressed render; now it hits this, which caches the image on disk and serves
+// it with a long Cache-Control so the browser caches it too. A negative marker caps re-fetching
+// covers that don't exist.
+const CACHEABLE = "public, max-age=2592000"; // 30 days
+const NEG_CACHE = "public, max-age=86400"; // re-check a missing cover daily
+const UUID = /^[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{12}$/i;
+
+export async function GET(request: Request, { params }: { params: Promise<{ rgMbid: string }> }) {
+  const { rgMbid } = await params;
+  if (!UUID.test(rgMbid)) return new Response(null, { status: 400 });
+  const size = new URL(request.url).searchParams.get("size") === "500" ? "500" : "250";
+  const CACHE = process.env.LYRA_COVER_CACHE ?? "/tmp/lyra-covers";
+  const key = `${rgMbid}-${size}`;
+  const file = join(CACHE, `${key}.jpg`);
+  const miss = join(CACHE, `${key}.miss`);
+
+  try {
+    if (existsSync(file)) {
+      return new Response(await readFile(file), {
+        headers: { "Content-Type": "image/jpeg", "Cache-Control": CACHEABLE },
+      });
+    }
+    if (existsSync(miss)) {
+      return new Response(null, { status: 404, headers: { "Cache-Control": NEG_CACHE } });
+    }
+    const res = await fetch(`https://coverartarchive.org/release-group/${rgMbid}/front-${size}`, {
+      headers: { "User-Agent": "Lyra/0.1 ( https://git.jger.nl/Jonathan/Lyra )" },
+    });
+    await mkdir(CACHE, { recursive: true });
+    if (!res.ok) {
+      await writeFile(miss, "").catch(() => {});
+      return new Response(null, { status: 404, headers: { "Cache-Control": NEG_CACHE } });
+    }
+    const buf = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());
+    await writeFile(file, buf).catch(() => {});
+    return new Response(buf, { headers: { "Content-Type": "image/jpeg", "Cache-Control": CACHEABLE } });
+  } catch {
+    return new Response(null, { status: 502 });
+  }
+}
diff --git a/web/src/app/queue.tsx b/web/src/app/queue.tsx
index 6fc0e2a..3ee4c43 100644
Binary files a/web/src/app/queue.tsx and b/web/src/app/queue.tsx differ