Signal Lost: The One-Album Career of an AOR Band That Arrived Two Years Too Late
In April 1989, four working Los Angeles musicians finished recording one of the most accomplished AOR albums of the decade at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Their producer believed it was the best work he had ever done. Their label dropped them within months of its release. The lead vocalist — already established through King Kobra, soon to be established through Unruly Child — would later transition and lose access to the music industry that had built her career. A retrospective on Signal's Loud and Clear, the album that should have sold millions, and on Marcie Michelle Free, the singer who carried its eight months of work into the rest of her life until her death in October 2025.
By Deep Cuts · Issue 04 · · 14 min read