I love how stripped down and pure it feels; it's like a cold glass of water whereas his later records are more like coctails; I tend to prefer the former type of records.

Actually, "Parade" *was* my favorite but DM is more appealing to my modern-day sensibilities.

Regarding SOTT, it's awesome of course but I don't think there is a single major (or minor) artist out there where the big, sprawling double album is *my* favorite and Prince is no exception... It's not a principle I have, I just don't tend to dig the big, sprawling record as much as its less ambitious, more focused smaller relatives; Stevie's SITKOL may be an exception but not really, I often say it's my favorite Stevie record simply because I think of the many great songs and moments and it just "intellectually" *feels* like the greatest for that reason. In reality however, i'm more likely to play individual songs or, at most, sides off that record and I tend to "skip"/move the "needle"/pickup during certain parts in songs whereas "Innervisions" and "Talking book" gets played from start to finish...