Grateful Dead: American Beauty (Warner-Reprise); Van Morrison: His Band and the Street Choir (Warner-Reprise)

THESE TWO albums have more in common than being on the same label (and it's no detriment to either that it should be the label which a few weeks ago laughably mismanaged a "popular street demo" outside the Albert Hall with spontaneously printed placards and paid "demonstrators" to hold them). Both are from artists whose past releases have shown a constant upward progression curve, and satisfyingly both are the best things they've yet done. And the two are, without doubt, the best records released this year.