appetiteapple built Gratitudes, out August 10th, entirely alone over the past year, writing, arranging in Logic Pro, mixing, mastering, and even designing the artwork without a single outside collaborator, retaining full ownership and royalties on the whole project as a result. That solo, DIY commitment matches the album’s actual subject matter well: Gratitudes traces a personal journey with learning to express thankfulness, starting with a childhood lesson from a teacher about saying “thank you” and following it through to a more mature, considered form of self-expression as an adult. Musically, the album pulls from 90s Britpop sensibilities while building genuinely vivid, specific soundscapes; songs like “Hello To Strangers” conjure the image of standing on a green hill looking down at a distant village, waiting on a connection with a strange kind of delight, while “Matter Of Decision” leans into a commanding mood built around willpower and personal strength.
This album is very good for introspection, largely because of how impeccable the soundscapes are throughout. That said, the first half does have a tendency to blend together somewhat, the kind of listening experience where you can look up and realize you’re already three songs in without quite registering the transition, which, depending on the listener, could read as either a feature or a flaw. Some will find that flow meditative and immersive, exactly the kind of headspace an album about quiet personal reflection should create, while others may want a bit more definition between the early tracks to hold their attention.
The second half of the record course-corrects on that front, becoming noticeably more distinct track to track, and the album lands its ending well. “Afternoon” closes things out as a genuine highlight, an uplifting melody that makes for a smart choice to end on, giving the record’s introspective arc a warm, hopeful landing point rather than trailing off. That structural choice mirrors the album’s own thematic journey, starting from something a little harder to parse and ending in a place of clarity and warmth, fitting for a record built entirely around learning how to properly say thank you.
For a completely solo project, Gratitudes is an impressively cohesive listen, and the Britpop-inflected, cinematic instrumental work throughout shows real command of mood even where the pacing occasionally works against it. appetiteapple‘s insistence on total creative control clearly paid off here, producing something that feels genuinely personal from front to back rather than assembled from familiar parts.
