diff --git a/src/lib/state.svelte.js b/src/lib/state.svelte.js
index 747d14d..7823b5e 100644
--- a/src/lib/state.svelte.js
+++ b/src/lib/state.svelte.js
@@ -751,6 +751,13 @@ export const catalog = $state({
     artistLoading: false,
     artistStageError: "",
     artistPage: null, // { artist, albums }
+    // Bumped once per openCatalogArtist call, INCLUDING a re-open of the artist
+    // already on screen. The view opens itself at the top off this rather than
+    // off the artist's id: the id cannot tell a re-open from no navigation at
+    // all, and it cannot tell the cold path's stage-by-stage replacement of
+    // artistPage (same id, new object, several times a second) from a real one
+    // — keying on that would drag a reader back to the top mid-read.
+    artistOpenSeq: 0,
     albumLoading: false,
     albumPage: null, // { album, tracks }
     pendingTrackId: null, // a track to scroll to/flash on the album page
@@ -1533,6 +1540,9 @@ export async function openCatalogArtist(artistId, seedArtist = null) {
     const request = ++artistPageRequest;
     const artistKey = artistCacheKey(artistId);
     if (!artistKey) return;
+    // After the bail-out above, so a request we never act on cannot scroll the
+    // page the reader is still on.
+    catalog.artistOpenSeq += 1;
     activateCoverUpgradeScope(artistId);
     ui.view = "catalogArtist";
     const active = () =>
diff --git a/src/views/CatalogArtist.svelte b/src/views/CatalogArtist.svelte
index d15fac9..a2d64f8 100644
--- a/src/views/CatalogArtist.svelte
+++ b/src/views/CatalogArtist.svelte
@@ -113,6 +113,25 @@
         return () => clearTimeout(t);
     });
 
+    // Every artist page opens at the top. `.content` is the app's ONE scroll
+    // pane and it outlives the view swap, so its scrollTop carried over: leave
+    // one artist 900px down its discography, open another, and you landed 900px
+    // down the new one — mid-grid, hero already squeezed into the bar, with no
+    // hint the page had a top.
+    // Keyed on catalog.artistOpenSeq, NOT the artist's id. The id cannot tell a
+    // re-open of the artist already on screen (clicking their name from Now
+    // Playing while parked deep in their own page — nothing moved) from no
+    // navigation at all. It also cannot be keyed on `page`: the cold path
+    // replaces that object stage by stage under the same id, which would haul a
+    // reader back to the top mid-read. The seq bumps once per open and never
+    // per stage. Ask for the pane BY NAME — the same rule scrollPaneFor()
+    // follows, and for the same reason.
+    $effect(() => {
+        void catalog.artistOpenSeq;
+        const pane = document.querySelector(".content");
+        if (pane) pane.scrollTop = 0;
+    });
+
     // THE HERO PIPELINE (Kyle, 2026-07-24 — the approved configuration,
     // now unconditional):
     //   - Crossfade twins: the main-thread blur filter rides on the hero