NextGen Gallery – post Album via custom fields

Hello – I have been using nextgen gallery.

You post an album by putting [album id=x] into the post.

However, I thought I could put that command in my single.php page, with the intention of accessing a particular ID via custom fields.ie:[album id=<?php $thumb = get_post_custom_values('album-id'); echo $thumb[0];?> template=compact](obviously in my get_content() )

it doesnt work – it just says [album id=(my custom field) template=compact]

Any Ideas — ?!