You couldn’t ask for a more mainstreamrock sound than what you’re going to get from Holding Mercury’s “Downfall of an Empire.” With obvious influences from Cheap Trick and the 90s alt-rock sound, the new record is a crisp pop album that sounds completely ready for radio . . . Even if, on the lead track, they claim to be “running away from the corporate mainstream.” The best part of the album is that they they’ve got skills on top of the great production here. They lyrics are good and PG (lots of lines about caffeine, none about coke), the hooks are terrific, and the vocals are pitch perfect.
This is not what you’d expect from an indie band.
