Marilyn Hucek Shimmers with Debut Album “MARILYN”
Knock, knock. There’s something magnetic that’s been delivered to your doorstep, and it’s Marilyn Hucek’s debut album, MARILYN. The release feels like a handwritten package sealed in wax — intimate, reflective, and delicately raw. Across eight carefully crafted tracks, the independent American Chilean singer-songwriter is inviting you into the quiet corners of her soul. Each song is dressed in a nostalgic memory, marking a spot in her coming-of-age map as a woman, daughter, and artist learning to move on her own terms.
The album is deeply personal, blending together her self-discovery, love affairs, dreams, and her relationship with her father into a shimmering musical adventure. With heartfelt lyricism and storytelling rooted in self-aware honesty, Marilyn crafts a sonic journey that balances vulnerability with poise, keeping you on your toes. MARILYN isn’t just an introduction. It’s an arrival.
Now that she’s here, it’s time to explore the world she’s built track by track. So, hold our hand as we guide you through the heartbreaks, healings, and headstrong growth that make MARILYN shine.
A Long-Awaited Arrival
What better way to start an adventure than with a track written on a 665-mile road trip from DC to Nashville? The album opens with Marilyn’s strong declaration transformed into a song – “I Made It.” On the surface, it sounds like a call home to announce the singer-songwriter’s landing in a new city, fueled with hope and ambition (and a picture with Dolly Parton). However, beneath that lies a deeper story and celebration. It’s a farewell from her past life and all she knew as she embarks on this new journey of her life. Marilyn Hucek has arrived at the music scene, and she’s making her dreams shine bright, one guitar strum at a time.
Soft, shimmering, and vulnerably honest, the second track, “Naked,” captures the warmth of being truly seen by someone. By the first note, you’re immediately taken back on a nostalgic fast track to the 2000s. The song is filled with sentimental hooks and breezy synths that feel like that wind in your hair while you are riding a red convertible. In this one, Marilyn feels “naked” in this person’s presence — not exposed, but liberatingly free. She sings, “You give me love in the daylight / You make it alright / To be naked.” In a crowded room full of unfamiliar faces, this person’s shining light becomes her safe refuge, the only one who can see beyond her gloss, glitter, and guarded facade. This new feeling is strange, one she can’t understand, yet adores — to be loved unconditionally under any scope of light.
Heart-shaped Diamonds Terrain
MARILYN’s third track, “Love To Hate You,” is deliciously dramatic and dangerously catchy. Released earlier this month, it’s for anyone who’s ever been maddeningly obsessed with someone they absolutely can’t stand. She calls them “impossible to like,” but also, “I’d choose the pain all the time / ‘Cause I love to hate you.” The track treads lightly on the line between heartbreak and hysteria, turning into a paradoxical ode to the person who drives her crazy in the most intoxicating way. As an unaware, self-aware confession, “Love to Hate You” embodies the irresistible emotional chaos that’s equal parts jealousy, hatred, and, ultimately, love.
Trading her frustration for unwavering commitment, “Pressure Makes Diamonds” is a love letter and witty commentary spun into the fourth track of this debut. Just like diamonds, a relationship can bloom under strain and hardship, and Marilyn is strapped into this ride—whether or not there’s one on her left ring finger. Undeterred by outsiders’ interference and prying eyes into her relationship, she knows her lover’s flaws as well as her own and is determined to weather their cold storms or hot flashes. If anything, she’s willing to be the one to endure the challenge and polish them both into something brighter with any physical proof of her commitment. “Pressure makes diamonds, but now diamonds putting pressure on us,” she sings. There’s tenderness beneath the metaphor that’s entwined throughout the track. Marilyn promises she’ll never let them face the world alone, and that they’re bound by something stronger than the societal notion of marriage. Through thick and thin, she’ll be right by their side, till their very last days.
Stuck in Limbo
Ever been stuck in a loop of returning to someone you swore you’d left behind? Well, “Rebound” is an anthem for anyone who’s claimed “never again” to someone only to find themselves waking up in that someone’s bed. She sings through the ache with resigned honesty, her voice heavy with longing and humorously aware of her own contradictions with hums of agreement as adlibs to her claims. Marilyn tries to play it nonchalantly, but the truth is…she’s anything but that. “You want what you can’t have,” she admits about herself, before conceding, “Any excuse I make to deny the truth, I come back to you.” Who can blame her, though? After all, it’s not her fault that sometimes heartbreak has to repeat itself before it sinks in.
With the sixth track, Marilyn finds herself trapped in a limbo, not of returning to an old flame, but stuck on what move is the right one forward. “To Be or Not to Be” slows the album’s earlier 2000s-esque pop momentum into a steady beat of contemplation and emotional turmoil. The first line hits us — “Ambition only takes a girl so far” — a total 180 to the carpe diem mentality of the introductory track, “I Made It.” In this track, she wrestles with time, ambition, and the ache of uncertainty. “That’s the point of life,” she sings, “To be or not to be.” Just like how others are curious about what her future looks like, she’s also anxious about where she will or should arrive. The line “I don’t know quite yet, but I don’t want regrets” questions what exactly is the perfection she’s chasing, as she hasn’t the slightest clue herself, but she “can’t stop the clock.” Nevertheless, no matter which side of the grass is the greenest, “To Be or Not to Be” offers us a moment of stillness, where indecision can become its own kind of clarity.
A Resting Point
Bathed in warmth and sung entirely in Spanish, “Me Salvaste El Alma” feels like a prayer to love itself. The track stands out as one of the album’s most soothing ballads, delicate yet soul-deep. The title translated is “You Saved My Heart,” and we can guarantee it’ll tug at your own heartstrings. This tender song opens with an image of searching through the dark as Marilyn sings, “At the bottom of the abyss / In the strange or unknown/ That’s where, my love, we met.” While navigating the darkness, she found a budding connection that soon blossomed into her lifeline. In the chorus, she professes, “your love is the air I breathe/My pain leaves with every kiss you give me.” Constrained in pitch black, she was able to be guided out with their shining light, and for that, “it saved [her] soul.” Nearing the end of MARILYN, “Me Salvaste El Alma” is a spiritual exhale and a wonderful nod to her Chilean heritage, grounding the album’s emotional journey in love’s salvation.
And the final stop on this journey is “Neil Young.” This closing track is a gentle guitar-driven ballad written in tribute to her late father and his battle with Alzheimer’s. The song is bittersweetly beautiful, heartwrenching, and comforting. Reminiscing, Marilyn sings softly, “It makes you feel young, so I put Harvest Moon on.” Her lyrics paint a picture so vivid it feels like time stops. We can almost see the moment alongside her: “I see your cheeks rise, your blue eyes, tapping your feet like nothing is wrong.” This is the kind of observation that can only come from years of watching someone you love more than words can explain. “You might not remember me, but you remember Neil Young,” she sings. Through the haze of fading memories, music becomes the one thing that still connects them. Her father may remember Neil Young more than he remembers her, but now, she remembers her father through Neil Young. Transforming grief into grace, loss into legacy, “Neil Young” closes MARILYN on a soft, trembling note.
The Next Destination
MARILYN’s conclusion feels less like an ending and more like a horizon opening far and wide. From the radiant touchdown of “I Made It” to the aching farewell of “Neil Young,” Marilyn takes us through the mosaic of her life in motion, filled with love, pain, and hope. This album isn’t simply about where she’s been and what she’s endured. Rather, it’s a compass for where she’s going. You can hear her courage in every verse, her personality in every note.
With MARILYN, she’s only begun her musical odyssey. The next destination? Somewhere, her voice and craft continue to evolve, and her stories keep unfolding. Whatever comes next, one thing is certain. Marilyn Hucek isn’t just finding her way. She’s writing it equipped with a trusty guitar and keyboard.
Take a listen to MARILYN on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube. Be sure to follow Marilyn Hucek on her next musical destination through Instagram, X, TikTok, and her website!
Looking for another sentimental pop-ballad-hybrid album deep dive? Read our full breakdown of Laufey’s A Matter of Time here!
