Robbie Rapids is a Gen X guitar guy who treats classic rock as the base but pulls in pop, folk, alt-country, and metal ideas under the Class 2 Rapids name. He writes with a rotating crew of co-writers and players, but the voice stays consistent across the record. The songs read like separate scenes collected in one place, not a single concept.
“Hang Loose” opens with sharp lead guitar, busy riffs, and an upbeat groove. The lyric focuses on burning out while climbing the company ladder, then flips into a simple release, scream it out and let go.
“Dance with Me” leans into an 80s-pop-meets-funk lane. The guitars go bright and jangly, and the lyric plays out as a club scene, chasing the dream girl, trying to get one more chance while she’s already dancing with somebody else.
“Black Roses” moves into a darker space. The beat is more trippy, the progression pulls into shadow, and the lyric is written backward from the end of the story, looking at breakup and moving on from a strange angle.
“I Believe in You” softens the sound. The melody leans romantic, but there’s still grit in the middle of the track. The story runs through childhood friendships, jobs, military life, and the question of who you lean on when you’re suddenly on your own.
“BIG BAM BOOM” is the glam one. He nods directly to David Bowie and T. Rex in the lyric, and the track is built around loud guitars and a stomp you can shout along with.
“Dream Away, Reimagined” slows down again. The guitars stay sharp and slightly phased, and the track leans into indie-rock drift. The lyric sticks to daydreaming about a distant love, mapping feelings to days of the week, and replaying the same memories.
“Mystery of Life” has that nostalgic rock-and-roll swing. Lyrically it frames love as coincidence, one of those strange alignments life throws at you.
“Bad Habit” is straight guitar-forward. Riffs lead the track, the solo cuts through hard, and the lyric frames the narrator as the habit someone kicks when they finally decide to clean up.
Sync-wise, the writing is the selling point here, each track drops you into a clear situation fast, which makes the record easy to picture under scenes.
Taken as a whole, Class 2 Rapids feels like a rock record built from different kinds of stories rather than one concept. The guitars and hooks keep it in familiar territory, but the songs move between office stress, club romance, tent cities, lost mules, garden temptation, and fishing trips, with the same narrator voice running through it.
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