★★★★★
How refreshing to see Born Ruffians return to form after the lackluster Say It (2010). While less enticingly gritty than their 2007 debut, Red, Yellow & Blue, their newest release doesn't suffer from its higher production value. The glossier sheen is more marketable, more immediately palatable. My own predilections for lo-fi aside, this polished iteration offers more musical layers to wade through, a mish-mash of of styles with a cogent through-line -- Mitch DeRosier's fantastic and creative...
- www.noripcord.com
2013-04-22
★★★★★
The first thing that strikes you as you step into Birthmarks, the third album from Midland, Ontario's Born Ruffians, is the staggering stench of Exactly What The Label Asked For. The honed vocal tics, pitched directly between Noah Lennox, Marcus Mumford and Fleet Foxes. The enormous production so eminently pristine you glimpse your own reflection in the vocals, causing momentary nausea...
- drownedinsound.com
2013-04-20
★★★★★
Goto commentsLeave a commentShare Musical Rapscallions While the last album (2010's Say It) by Canadian indie scenesters Born Ruffians received lackluster reviews citing emotional immaturity, their latest, Birthmarks benefits from the very youthful exuberance their first was criticized for. Birthmarks presents 12 tracks of bouncy pop that has all the bubbly veracity of Vampire Weekend without the pretension...
- www.mxdwn.com
2013-04-20
★★★★★
It's easy to get stuck in the past when fixating on a band's first album. Born Ruffians, the Toronto-based quartet, is five years later still measured by their wonderful debut, Red, Yellow & Blue. Understandably, the band's sound has changed since then, but it's hard not to yearn for the herky-jerky pop that made their debut so memorable. On their third album, Birthmarks, however, they've definitely chilled out and grown up, sounding more polished and versatile than ever before...
- nowtoronto.com
2013-04-18
★★★★★
It's easy to get stuck in the past when fixating on a band's first album. Born Ruffians, the Toronto-based quartet, is five years later still measured by their wonderful debut, Red, Yellow & Blue. Understandably, the band's sound has changed since then, but it's hard not to yearn for the herky-jerky pop that made their debut so memorable. On their third album, Birthmarks, however, they've definitely chilled out and grown up, sounding more polished and versatile than ever before...
- www.nowtoronto.com
2013-04-20
★★★★★
Let's take a trip back to the late Noughties, that golden era of indie landfill, when you couldn't move for the hoardes of skinny-jeaned young men attempting to force spiky guitar riffs down your throat in the hope of being hailed as the next Arctic Monkeys, or dabbling in Afrobeat and calypso to cash in on the Vampire Weekend phenomenon...
- www.musicomh.com
2013-04-18
★★★★★
Born Ruffians BirthmarksBy Cam LindsayIf there were such a thing as an award for "most improved band" in music, Born Ruffians would be worth betting on. While their last album, 2010's Say It, wasn't exactly the equivalent of a season batting around .200 or tossing 20-plus interceptions, it failed to turn heads and keep the momentum of their well-received debut going...
- exclaim.ca
2013-04-18
★★★★★
Among several, two main perks of being in a band are the camaraderie and fellowship that come along with playing the music. The long hours spent traveling the road, the opportunities to find trouble in exotic or offbeat locales, and the chance to hang out late into the night writing songs, debating arcane topics, or mindlessly flipping through hotel cable channels are all offshoots of the musical experience...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-04-18
★★★★★
Just when we thought we'd finally got "Hummingbird" out of our heads, Canadian indie pop sweethearts Born Ruffians release another album bursting with catchy choruses, twanging guitars and Luke Lalonde's signature squeaky vocals. The aptly named Birthmarks is full of tracks that are bound to leave a stain. I've lost count of the times I've burst into awfully tone-deaf song this week, relaying lyrics such as "Neeeeedle in the hay", "Is it cheating if I call you sweetheart...
- www.theaureview.com
2013-04-15
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