As we reported yesterday, vinyl sales are on an unprecedented upward rise in sales. This has led some to wonder if the hype over Animal Collective’s newest record — only released on LP to date — will land it on the Billboard charts.

It would be a monumental achievement in any format given the band’s oddly enticing brand of music, but considering the album, which won’t get released on CD until January 20, came out in a deluxe double-LP 180-gram gatefold vinyl format accompanied by a full album download this past Tuesday [January 6], it would be a near miracle. Or at least that was the thought only a few short years ago. In either case, we’ll have to wait and see, but for all of us audiophiles who have been proclaiming wax as the best format available, we told you so.

From MTV.com: In an age when downloads are routinely trouncing physical sales, the prospect of one of those old-school albums crashing the party is as quaint as, well, having a bandleader named Panda Bear (as Animal Collective does). Based on the low-hanging-fruit figures on the most recent Nielsen SoundScan tally — which represents the typical early-January dead zone in sales — Merriweather could chart in the mid-160s thanks to the immediate sellout of all 4,500 copies of the initial run.

But because so many of those albums were sold in independent stores that don’t report to SoundScan, it’s impossible to know until Wednesday if the official figures will put the band on the charts. At press time, an unofficial tally on SoundScan put sales at less than 200 copies. To put this feat in perspective, though, Domino Recording Company spokesperson Peter Berard said that Merriweather sold almost as many vinyl copies in one day (including preorders) as the band’s September 2007 album, Strawberry Jam, has sold to date on vinyl.

Because unlike everyone else, we’re still not certain if Merriweather Post Pavilion is the best Animal Collective album, we’ve decided to bring back their beautiful video for the single “Peacebone” from Strawberry Jam. After all, it is an unspoken music-website rule to make at least one Animal Collective post a day.

Animal Collective – “Peacebone”

2009 has started with bang, as critics have already proclaimed Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion the best record of the year. Mind you the year is 5 days old and the record has only been released on vinyl (as of today), but now you can listen to the heavily-hyped, closely-watched-for-leaks album in its entirety. And legally.

It’s only been officially out for a few hours, but already The Chicago Tribune, Paste Magazine, Spin and Pitchfork are elbowing each other out of the way to bow down in front of it. Why don’t you be the judge?

With a current listener rating of a rather paltry 5 out of a possible 10, NME is hosting the entire album on its website. The only catch is you need Windows Media Player installed (c’mon NME — don’t you run on Mac’s?), so we sent this to our intern who works on a PC to indeed verify they are the entire songs and the entire album. To listen, just click here.