Shabazz Palaces It's a Style Sport
Released Oct 23, 2026 Sub Pop Records
Consensus forming 3 professional reviews Updated Oct 30, 2026
Broadly positive consensus
Consensus is still forming across 3 professional reviews. Shabazz Palaces's It's a Style Sport turns a restless reach across time and space into a grounded, personal statement, earning a favorable 75.33/100 consensus score across three professional reviews.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
From One Future To Another
1 critic mention
“Closing track “From One Future to Another” thankfully downshifts Butler’s overabundance of swagger to something more vulnerable.” — Slant Magazine
Tongue In Chic
1 critic mention
Show Me Missouri In Mink
2 critic mentions
“The song develops into a slow-burn, lighters-up jam, its long, unhurried coda like getting lost in a sea of echoing, overlapping memories.” — Pitchfork
Full critic consensus
Shabazz Palaces's It's a Style Sport turns a restless reach across time and space into a grounded, personal statement, earning a favorable 75.33/100 consensus score across three professional reviews. Critics describe an album that balances the duo's signature otherworldliness with Ishmael Butler's more direct presence, using memory and personal history to reckon with who he has become. Its bravado remains intact, but age and vulnerability give the record a reflective center.
The strongest tracks make that contrast vivid. “Deadstock Dude” is a woozy, sly assertion of originality, while “Show Me Missouri In Mink” finds calm in life’s shaping forces. Both drew praise from multiple critics. “Jheri Curl Jump” turns swagger into playful self-parody, and “From One Future To Another” pares back the bluster for a more exposed, contemplative Butler. Across these songs, humor and competitive spirit coexist with resilience and a sense of transcendence: the record can mythologize its narrator without losing sight of the person beneath the persona.
The reception is positive rather than unqualified. Reviewers value the album’s layered sound and its shifts between loose comedy, self-assured performance, and quieter reflection; one particularly hears Butler at his most convincing when the swagger gives way to vulnerability. Taken together, the reviews suggest a distinctive, rewarding entry in the Shabazz Palaces catalog, with its best songs gaining depth as their details come into focus.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Ahh World (I Won The Alpha Bet)
Field Notes
Show Me Missouri In Mink
Jheri Curl Jump
Deadstock Dude
Tongue In Chic
Heliocentric Immortality Manifesto H.I.M.
Olivia According To Touch
Money Can't Save Your Mind
From One Future To Another
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Shabazz Palaces puts Butler more at the forefront on It's a Style Sport, and the best songs on the album find him loose, direct, and even funny. “Ahh World (I Won The Alpha Bet)” makes that newfound directness quite literal, while “Jheri Curl Jump” lets him play the smooth operator while repeatedly undercutting his own game. He gets even sillier on “Tongue In Chic,” recounting a date that ends with death threats and a hospital visit. The best tracks on It's a Style Sport also make room for a quieter Butler: “From One Future To Another” downshifts his overabundance of swagger to something more vulnerable. That’s where he sounds most like himself.
Key Points
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“From One Future To Another” is the best song because it trades the album’s swagger for vulnerability, where Butler sounds most like himself.
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The album’s core strengths are its loose, live feel, direct storytelling, and humor, balanced by moments of reflection.
Themes
Critic's Take
Shabazz Palaces plants one foot on solid ground with It's a Style Sport, reaching through space and time without becoming completely untethered. The best songs on It's a Style Sport turn memory into a tool for analyzing the grand mysteries: “Field Notes” offers cautionary tales and advice from the now 57-year-old to a young Butler, while “Show Me Missouri in Mink” finds peace with the ways life has shaped him. “Deadstock Dude” is a woozy swell and a sly declaration that they don’t make ’em like this anymore. Turn the volume up and that pinhole dilates, revealing more layers hidden in plain sight.
Key Points
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“Deadstock Dude” is the standout for its woozy swell and sly, silken shit talk.
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The album’s quiet arrangements reward close listening, while its reflections on memory, resilience, and curiosity give the songs emotional depth.