What is the easiest way to restore to a previous backup of Time Machine?

I was adding some simple album cover artwork to my iTunes collection when the computer locked up. I got the spinning beach ball and was unable to "force quit." So, I did a re-boot using the power key. I then launched iTunes and it opened properly with all the new Album Artwork. The files were not large in size and the "Album Artwork" folder is only 99.8MB.
I did a Time Machine backup yesterday and the only thing changed on the computer was the artwork. However, when Time Machine launched to do a backup it said there was 30GB(!!!) to back up?!?!?
I am assuming something got corrupted in the iTunes library file during the crash and now it thinks it has to back up part of the music.
So, that is what caused the problem. My question is, what is the easiest way to simply restore the backup the Time Machine had completed yesterday before all this happened?? It doesn't seem like there is a simple way to accomplish this. It looks like TM is used to back up specific files or folders and not to restore the computer to a previous state.
Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!!

Time Machine backs up all files except those you exclude in TM prefs. It doesn't "know" what kind a file is; it just compares info about a file on the source drive to see if it has already been backed up, or if it is new or has changed and needs to be backed up again. For unchanged files or folders, TM simply creates another hard link on the backup drive.
iTunes artwork files are separate files. The assignments of artwork to particular music files are saved in another file within the iTunes application (which is actually a package, a folder containing other files). So if all you did was add album artwork, TM would back up each new artwork file, and a new copy of the hidden file within the iTunes application containing the artwork-music links.
The following is speculation on my part, but it seems logical:
TM uses records in the hidden File System Events log to identify any new or modified files. However, it is possible to have an FSE entry as to a particular file without modifying the file (e.g. open, then close). So TM doesn't "know" until it actually compares the source file with the backup file (if one exists) whether a file is new or has been modified.
Hope this helps.

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