It's been two years since OK Computer was released, and music critics everywhere are still searching for the elusive beast known as "the American Radiohead." I'll sheepishly admit that I employed the latter phrase in my review of Sparklehorse's Good Morning Spider, and I've heard a few bands described as such, but none come as close to Radiohead's erudite melodrama as San Francisco's MK Ultra.

Compare MK's 1996 album Original Motion Picture Soundtrack with OK Computer and you'll immediately see the parallels: XTC-ish pop melodies fed through the prog wringer, narrative prose lyrics, and an uneasy vision of life in premillenial America. Frontman John Vanderslice's cast of sharply drawn characters-- a creepy true- crime afficionado, a travelling salesman bearing witness to a terrorist bombing, a delusional man convinced of an impending alien invasion-- contrast with what seem to be more personal stories (though it could be he's just a damn good storyteller all around). Original Motion Picture Soundtrack didn't completely justify its concept album conceit (though it wasn't for a lack of trying), right down to including dialogue clips from Soundtrack's nonexistent movie.

The self- produced, self- released The Dream is Over appears to be a gloomier, more personal affair, but it's also a much more musically cohesive album than Soundtrack. Apart from the irresistibly bouncy "Red Cross" and "All We Have," The Dream is Over lives up to its melancholy title. Amid the dreamy atmospherics of "Red on White on Blue," Vanderslice toasts the "crazy sons of the pioneers;" then he makes a convincing case for life- during- wartime nostalgia on the sad, yearning "I Miss the War". Naturally, he sounds more authentic when dealing with the typical indie- rock subjects of masturbation, girls, uncomprehending parents, coffee, and the existential pain of weekends.

When MK Ultra's hooks connect, Vanderslice can make even singing a laundry list sound good ("Heavy Weather"). When they don't, such as on the tuneless grey wash of "Fortune Cookies," lines like, "Ever wonder what you're here for?/ Answer: transfer genetic code," sound especially heavy- handed and clumsy. Fortunately, that track is the only major misstep in an otherwise exceptional pop album. The Dream is Over is incredibly ambitious, full of passionate songwriting, and at once complex and effortless; in other words, everything that independent music in the '90s should be.

-Nick Mirov