Shad hasn't ever really gotten much discussion on here I think, but he has a new album coming out soon, and a new video single with a fun little spinoff of Black Excellence
The Tao's do stand out, and feel the most conventionally Shad like tracks. He did seem to go for something a bit different stylistically in other cases on this album than his old stuff.
I should probably give Short Story about a War more spins, I never really played it out as much as I did TSOL or Flying Colours. I appreciated what he was going for but never really dove into the concept.