My Sterno and Gel skins do this:
http://mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84214
actually, when you fire up audio browser it's in list view (until you select and artist)
when you single click or scroll and enter an artist it switches to humbnail view for the albums...when you enter an album it switches back to list view for the songs.
To get the single click working you have to modify the ondirclick (see readme) and to get the thumbnail switching working you have to make three different copies of your original browser.skin and switch between them according to what folder level you are in.
Enjoy!
Rich