this is sort of offtopic but, is there any way to add an Album View to the Column UI? i've searched and searched but i can't find anything.

There is an album list panel, just do a search for it. However, I don't know if there is a working one for the latest beta.

i did find one for the current stable version but i was unsucessfull in finding one for the current Release Candidate.

You may have to wait, or else use an older version. During rapid developement of columns, the side panels tend to be neglected until the next major release.