Encoding issue with medialibrary

This is on VLC 3.2.6 stable on a device with Android 7.1.2

1. Source of 100 songs http://www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/best_songs_of_2019.php
2. Put those 100 songs in 1 folder (I named it SaidTheGramophone) and put in say, the Music folder.
3. Go to directories in VLC, press the 3 dot button next to the folder and tap "Play" to play all the files in the original file order.
4. There's a strange pause or lockup where the songs don't immediately play but the bottom bar player seems to stay blank and lock up at 0:00 for a few seconds before actually playing the songs. This might be related, not sure.

5. Go to the list view when playing the 100 songs. Notice that no matter which song you play in the list, the 1st song in the list (Don't Know How to Keep Loving You) does not have album art in the list like every other song does. However, it clearly has album art in the "Now Playing" window and notification.