Q: purchased album for my computer now i want to gift it to a friend, but the option to do that does not exist anymore.

You cannot gift an album you have already purchased, you must choose the option to gift the album during the purchase process.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2736

I misunderstood what you were asking. I thought you didn't mean to buy it for yourself, you meant to gift it originally.

To gift an album you have already purchased yourself, you will need to first sign out of the iTunes Store, then navigate to the album in the iTunes Store (while still signed out), the gift option should show now, and when you click it it should prompt you to sign back in to your Apple ID.