Selecting the best (and worst) songs from every Genesis album requires open ears. After all, as personnel came and went over the decades, they've shape-shifted through prog, folk and (more than once) pop.

It all began with a core group led by Peter Gabriel, but even then Genesis showed a knack for mainstream sounds – even if their 1969 debut fizzled on the charts. It took a couple of albums, and the addition of Phil Collins and Steve Hackett, for Genesis' transformation into full-on progressive rockers to be complete. That celebrated five-man lineup eventually garnered Genesis their first pair of gold-sellers but lasted through only four '70s-era studio LPs.

Gabriel's departure didn't just send the group looking for a new singer, it hearkened a tectonic shift back toward pop – though this transformation didn't happen overnight. First, they installed Collins as singer, then, two albums later, saw the departure of Hackett. Now whittled down to a sturdy trio also featuring co-founders Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, Genesis began shedding their prog leanings in the '80s, and struck platinum. Every trio release fronted by Collins sold a least a million copies.

The group attempted to carry on without him, as they had earlier with Gabriel's departure, but a final '90s-era record with frontman Ray Wilson became the first to finish outside the Top 40 since 1976, and the band broke up. A career that lengthy, and that varied, inevitably included plenty of highs and some unfortunate lows. We surveyed it all in an effort to list the best (and worst) song from every Genesis album.