Absolute Radio: Discover real music

This was purchased, I'm freely admitting, as a novelty item. I could have just bought the CD and saved myself about 50% of the price. However, as the first of its kind (a USB album, compared to a USB single) and as I'm a bit of a technology fan I just had to have one.

The quality of the 256-bit MP3 files is very good; far better than normal 128-bit MP3s, which lack top end and sound compressed. Although these 256-bit files are technically not quite CD quality, I'm sure most people would be happy with the quality available. The first thing I did was burn them onto a CD-R for more normal playing in the Hi-Fi, which ironically is a reversal of the way files are normally transferred from a just-purchased media. I think, under current UK copyright law, this doesn't make me a pirate as it's for my own personal use (the speakers on my Hi-Fi are better than the those on my computer) - I would like to be set straight on this if I'm wrong, though.

Anyway, back to the music. What more can I say apart from the fact it's Bob Marley at the peak of his powers. The simplicity of the stereo build-up/opening of Exodus itself, or the infectiousness of Jamming, or the beauty of Three Little Birds, just are a joy to listen to. The three videos - taken from the live Exodus DVD - are a nice extra.

One slight hassle, though, is the way the USB stick itself was fixed into the box - it took a bit of careful picking at it before it could be persuaded to leave its bed of glue.

Rating: 5 out of 5