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HM's first full-length release. I'm Not Well was included on Q101's local volume 3. Q101 also had HM on as guests for their morning show, their annual block party and numerous other sponsored shows in Chicago. HM toured the midwest supporting the record and was named to the "Hot 100 Unsigned Artists" by "Music Connection Magazine" in both 2008 and 2009. Some other nice things critics said about the record: Each lighter-waving chorus on the group's consistently impressive debut is polished until it practically gleams." Andy Downing - Chicago Tribune "'Hit' is the key word, as Holding Mercury certainly have the hooks to spawn a few." Jeff Pizek - Chicago Daily Herald So many Windy City acts are influenced by Cheap Trick, but very few borrow just a little bit and expand with their own dynamic. Though "Stuck In The Box," off Holding Mercury's Downfall Of An Empire, has echoes of that Rockford legend, modern alt-rock guitars and frontman Matt Hoffer's rugged delivery never sound derivative. References like The Cars or newcomers Your Vegas aren't that far behind throughout the melodic ear candy "Standing Eight Count" and "Let It Go," but once again excel, thanks to inventive framework. - Andy Argyrakis - Illinois Entertainer "They've [HM] got everything; they've got the airwave-friendly rock formula down, made clear on songs like "Standing Eight Count" and the Daughtry-esque acoustics of "Anchors Away", a classic rock & roll attitude (look at their website and publicity photos) that plants them somewhere between Fall Out Boy and The Police, and enough talent and style to catapult themselves past the overindulgence of The Killers and into the upper echelons of modern alternative rock." -Viva La Mainstream Blog (second review) "Holding Mercury's album entitled Downfall of an Empire is a cyclone of fury that decimates extraneous, imposing remains on its path when you least suspect it." 8.5/10. John Berkowitz - celebritycafe.com