The new Animal Collective album is coming :-)

Everyone seems to be going bonkers about the forthcoming Animal Collective album "Merriweather Post Pavilion", which is not out until January but already has a promotional site. FACT, Drowned in Sound, Pitchfork and even MOJO are amongst those to pour forth superlatives. But I'm finding it quite strange that some of these enthusiastic previews have a peculiar implicit message; that they haven't really loved the band that much all along!!
A quote from FACT for example:

"What's the best thing about Animal Collective? What is it about us that they really respond to?". The answer, of course, is Panda Bear -- a fact borne out by his solo album, Person Pitch, totally eclipsing the Collective's messy last LP, Strawberry Jam."

Uhm...the logic goes something like this - "Merriweather Post Pavilion" is a great album because it sounds more like AC member Panda Bear's (more accessible and less varied) solo album, "Person Pitch", from last year and less like previous AC releases! Don't get me wrong, "Person Pitch" was a suberb record, a wonderful concoction of Beach Boys-esque harmonies and reverb-drenched mantras. In a way it was a deeper exploration of one aspect (Panda's aspect?) of the AC sound, whose choral harmonies also have a strong Beach Boys quality. But the beauty of AC is the variety in their music and if ever a band benefits form all of it members (rather than one) it's AC. I'm hoping that "Merriweather Post Pavilion" is indeed the best AC album so far - but not because it's a compromise, which irons out the bands quirks, which some at least, obviously have seen as weaknesses in past.