THE BEACH BOYS -- "ENDLESS HARMONY" and "ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS": (both on Capitol) These two discs are previews of the forthcoming overhaul (again?) of the Beach Boys' catalog. "Endless Harmony" is a nice, if a little disjointed, collection of unreleased tracks taken from the recent documentary (which will be issued in a longer video version). It's broken up a bit needlessly by the addition of some stereo mixes of master tracks. (As nice as these sound, why not remaster "Endless Summer" and those older Capitol compilations with these better sounding mixes?) "Ultimate Christmas" makes the third CD incarnation of Beach Boys Christmas tracks. This one is expanded with a number of unreleased tracks from the Beach Boys '70s Christmas album and some radio spots, but curiously leaves off "The Lord's Prayer" from the most recently available CD, a definite mistake. As nice as it is to have those '70s tracks (especially a legit release of "Winter Symphony" and a stereo mix of "Child of Winter"), the '60s tracks are the reason to buy this disc. While more and more holiday releases flood the stores each year, "The Beach Boys Christmas Album," even with its split personality of rock and more traditional album sides, is still one of the best Yule discs there is. (Nov. '98)