The real issue(as John pointed out in the interview) is that an artist of Karen's stature absolutely does not copy or imitate other artists.I didn't feel the solo album was such a failure, but in retrospect I feel it was more like a period piece. Phil Ramone simply went with what was popular at the time, even if KC was copying other singers. (I've always said the track "Lovelines" could have stepped right off of Michael Jackson's Off The Wall, for obvious reasons). Plus, a lot of group artists who go solo often don't "find themselves" until they've had a few solo albums under their belt, although others do nail it right away. A&M should have tested the waters with a single or two to gauge interest. Even if it wasn't the greatest album musically, the right choice of radio-ready single could have at least generated some album sales, and primed the record-buying public for more solo releases. My opinion is that it inevitably would have happened anyway--musically I really see no growth beyond the Horizon album, outside a couple of tracks here and there. KC needed to move on, and even if this solo album weren't all that did, its rejection probably wouldn't have helped inspire her in the future to do more of them.
Karen,as a vocalist,was in that elite music industry VIP club along with Sinatra,Streisand,Billie and Ella. Phil Ramone's objective with the solo album was to bring Karen down to the level of a generic pop singer-and this was a concept that A&M absolutely wouldn't consider just to generate a hit single or two.
K&R weren't a "group artist"-Karen was always regarded as a vocalist,and Richard as her producer/arranger.
As far as musical growth beyond Horizon-while there wasn't much of that in terms of generating top-40 hit singles,there was plenty of growth in terms of Karen as a stylist and Richard as a producer/arranger. Karen became much more expressive and sensuous on many of the later sessions-and Richard did some of his best arrangements and production work on the later recordings,also(of course,Peter Knight,Billy May and Nelson Riddle played a big role in crafting the later recordings).