Your Cart is Empty
This is a quiz about Genesis albums. It's not like any other Genesis quiz you may have seen - it uses unique geometric artworks created for, and from, the albums.
Each artwork shows all the tracks on one Genesis studio album. We use the running times of each track to create the artwork. Every studio album is represented at least once in the quiz (live albums are not included).
To do well at this Genesis quiz you need to know the albums - the songs, song order and have an idea of song length. You'll also need to use your brain a bit! If in doubt, have a guess and move on!
There are some helpful examples below, or, if you want to dive right in, start the quiz now.
These examples aren't based on albums by Genesis so please don't waste your time trying to identify them!
Style 1 The length of each arrow shows the length of the song it represents - first song of the album is at the top, the last song is at the bottom.
Style 2 Similar to the style 1, the length of each arrow shows the length of a song, but the arrow is mirrored because it results in beautiful symmetrical artworks. Songs are shown from top (first song) to bottom.
Style 3 The area of the circles is in proportion to the lengths of the songs. Here, the shortest song is track number 4 and the longest song is that big circle at the bottom, track number 8:
Style 4 This one is different, but the artworks have a bold, striking look. Each track appears as a ring (the first song is the outer ring, just like a vinyl LP record). The coloured portion of the ring shows the track length, and the whole ring is equal to the longest track on the album. The longest song appears as a completely coloured ring with narrow black taper lines at the start and end of it. Here, the longest song is the last one (the pink track right in the middle) and there's a very short (blue) track immediately before it.
That's it - you're ready to take the quiz! Good luck!
Come back here and scroll down when you've finished - there's a complete rundown of the answers and some interesting observations revealed by these artworks.
(If you like the look of the artworks, you can get them at 20% off here)
While you're here, check out the personalised Genesis record collection print...
Check out unique Genesis wall art here
Carry on down the page for quiz answers and explanations...
Here's a geometric artwork for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, a lovely visualisation of the ebbs and flows of the album and a beautiful way to see how the longer songs balance out the shorter ones.
Get 20% off Genesis album geometric artworks
Q1. Which of these artworks was created for the album that includes the songs Turn It On Again, Heathaze and Please Don't Ask?
Artwork A was created from We Can't Dance - the longest song on the album, Fading Lights, is that long line at the bottom of the artwork.
Artwork B (the correct answer) was created from Duke. Duke's End is the last track of the album, preceeded by the longest track, Duke's Travels. But as we all know there's barely a pause between Duke's Travels and Duke's End. It's almost one (very) long song (and, indeed, was originally part of the even longer Duke Suite). The beautiful shortest song on the album, Guide Vocal, is sandwiched between two much longer songs.
The similarities between these two artworks are obvious - a smattering of long songs with shorter songs distributed more or less evenly between them.
Q2. Which artwork was created from the tracks on Foxtrot?
Artwork A was created from Trespass. Dusk is the shortest song and comes just before the longest, The Knife, which closes the album.
Artwork B (the correct answer) was created from Foxtrot. The huge circle at the end is the huge Supper's Ready (longest song closing the album again). It's preceeded by the shortest 'song', the beautiful solo guitar piece Horizons.
Similarities are again obvious, even with Supper's Ready dominating the artwork for Foxtrot (just like it dominates the music on the album). Each album has four songs of similar length, followed by the shortest song on the album and then the longest song.
Q3. Which of these artworks was created from the tracks of the album that includes the songs Land Of Confusion, Anything She Does and Domino?
Artwork A (the correct answer) was created from Invisible Touch. Two long songs, lots of shorter songs.
Artwork B was created from Genesis (Shapes). All the songs are a similar length, but only if we treat Home By The Sea and Second Home By The Sea as two different tracks (this is how they appear on the album's track listing). The artwork is quite dense, with little white space, but it's somehow very satisfying.
Q4. Which of these artworks was created from the album that includes Undertow, Deep In The Motherlode and Follow You, Follow Me?
Artwork A (the correct answer) was created from ...And Then There Were Three.
Artwork B was created from Calling All Stations.
Obvious similarities again. Both have 11 tracks, both are quite dense albums and quite dense artworks. Calling All Stations closes with the longest song on the album.
Q5. Which of these artworks was created from the album that includes The Cinema Show and The Battle Of Epping Forest?
Artwork A was created from Invisible Touch.
Artwork B (the correct answer) was created from Selling England By The Pound. This album has a clear pattern of long songs followed by short songs.
Artwork C was created from A Trick Of The Tail. This is another of the albums whose longest song (Ripples) and shortest song (the title track) are next to each other in the running order.
There are eight songs on each of these albums. Invisble Touch and Selling England both have a mix of long and short songs. Somewhat surprisingly, given that A Trick Of The Tail was released right in the middle of the band's progressive period, the songs are all of a much more similar length. The Lamb, immediately before, and Wind And Wuthering, immediately afterwards, both have a lot more variation.
Q6. Which of these artworks was created from the tracks of the album that includes Me And Sarah Jane and Keep It Dark?
There are nine songs on each of these albums.
Artwork A (the correct answer) was created from Abacab. The shortest song, with the white space between the arrow heads, is Whodunnit and, in common with several other albums, it's placed next the albums longest song (Dodo/Lurker).
Artwork B was created from Wind And Wuthering. Like the Genesis album, there are two tracks on the album (Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers and In That Quiet Earth) that are really one track.
Artwork C was created from Genesis, which kicks off with the albums longest track (Mama).
Q7. Which of these artworks was created from the album that opens with the classic track The Musical Box?
Artwork A (the correct answer) was created from Nursery Cryme (7 tracks). It opens with the longest of the set, The Musical Box, followed by the shortest, For Absent Friends.
Artwork B was created from Wind And Wuthering (9 tracks).
Q8. Which album is from the four-man line up (Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford)?
Artwork A (the correct answer) was created from Wind And Wuthering (four-man line-up).
Artwork B was created from We Can't Dance (three-man line-up).
Artwork C was created from Selling England By The Pound (five-man line-up).
Three albums spread over many years but they all show considerable variation in the lengths of the songs.
Q9. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway has the most tracks of any Genesis studio album. Which of these artworks was created from it?
A completely different geometric design, and this one is harder to read. But this design also produces very striking artworks and has more than a passing resemblance to a 12 inch LP record.
Artwork A (the correct answer) was created from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - every one of those red and yellow arcs is a track. There are so many of them! The album seems busy, and so does the artwork!
Artwork B was created from Nursery Cryme.
Q10. These artworks were created from the tracks of the first and last (so far!) Genesis studio albums. But which of them was created from the tracks of Calling All Stations?
A difficult one, but we wanted to show those first and last albums together.
Artwork A is created from From Genesis To Revelation (13 songs).
Artwork B (the correct answer) is created from Calling All Stations (11 songs).
You can see that Artwork B has a lot more black space than Artwork A, which means there's a lot more variation in song times. The longest song on From Genesis To Revelation is not until track 4 (The Serpent). On Calling All Stations, the longest song is at the end.
When you view albums as beautiful pieces of geometric art, it's easy to see patterns that aren't quite as obvious when you listen to the music. The artworks show the 'shape' of an album. They show the number of songs, the relative length of the songs and the distribution of songs across an album.
For Genesis albums, there are some recurring themes:
None of this will come as a surprise to any Genesis fan, but it's interesting to see how consistently these patterns occur in the studio albums spread over many years.
It's an example of contrast within Genesis music - contrast of 'hard' songs and 'soft' songs, long songs and short songs, contrasting pace and mood within and between songs, contrasting lyrical ideas and subjects.
Genesis fans are familiar with the idea of change: 'The sands of time were eroded by the river of constant change' (Firth of Fifth).
These geometric artworks give a different look at Genesis albums - something familiar seen from a new viewpoint. The artworks have a beauty of their own. But the beauty in the artworks only exists because of the beauty in the music.
All the artworks in this quiz are available on print or on canvas. For a detailed description of the artwork, click on any of the images on this page.
Why would you want an artwork based on a Genesis album anyway?
Here are some more detailed images of some of the artworks.
This is the centre portion of an artwork for Calling All Stations. The rings, which each represent a track, are not single colours but, rather, they are graduated. This is part of what makes these artworks so satisfying to look at. The spiral nature of these pieces echoes the spiral nature of an LP record.
Here's a portion of an artwork for Wind And Wuthering. This one has a textured appearance, so it looks more organic than the 'smooth' version of the same artwork.
Here's a section from an artwork for Invisible Touch - a lightly textured look lends it some extra visual interest when you look at it closely.
Finally, here's a close up of the songcircles geometric art for Foxtrot. Even in this small section it's easy to see how Supper's Ready dominates the piece.
Get 20% off Genesis album geometric artworks
