 AllMusic 's Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Kitty Empire from The Guardian called " Birthday " one of the best tracks from Prism : Erlewine described it as a " glorious retro @-@ disco explosion " and Empire found a " girly simpatico " in the song that sustains it . Marah Eakin from The A.V. Club felt the track was " pure fun " . Jason Lipshutz of Billboard called it a " stone @-@ cold stunner " , going on to say the song " serves as pop music 's ( superior ) answer to Swizz Beatz 's " Everyday Birthday " . He also felt it was the song with the " most smash potential " included in Prism . Chris Bosman of Consequence of Sound wrote that the song was a " irrepressible disco jam " and found it superior to Carly Rae Jepsen 's album Kiss ( 2012 ) . 
