*resist joke*

[Video][Website]
[4.62]

Anthony Easton: A very average song that I would not turn off it was playing on the radio, which reminds me of a slightly updated version of We Built This City. Weirdly, does not seem to have an actual crescendo. 
[3]

Crystal Leww: Terius Nash is often credited in music nerd circles for being a male who is great at writing for women, but Pharrell is someone who we don’t talk about enough, despite writing for big names like Kelis, Britney, and Beyoncé. I’m not sure what skin in the game Pharrell has writing for the virtually unknown Jetta, but “Crescendo” is him firing on all cylinders with a female vocalist who completely bodies his vibe. Jetta is perfect as the carefree summer gal, the one who needs little other than a crop top and a street to strut her stuff on, the one who flits and fills this melody, who skips on this guitar. It’s pointless, even crabby, to point out the corniness of how the music mirrors the lyrics, which are talking about a musical element anyway. We’re at peak-Pharrell part two after all.
[7]

Alfred Soto: A diminuendo more like. 
[4]

Will Adams: Jetta’s got a fine voice, but her backing sounds so thin and unfinished that it’s a wonder she was able to muster any energy in the vocal booth.
[4]

Patrick St. Michel: Geez, Jetta should not give advice about what to do at a gas station, unless you have money to throw away. 
[5]

Brad Shoup: Street sounds, brought to you by Pharrell and Pepsi. A chipper bass, a bored drummer, a musical-theater chorus. Her greatest legacy may be a Facebook page that passes the PR Turing test.
[3]

Mallory O’Donnell: I suppose it would be a bit rich to expect there to be any actual use of crescendo in the making of the song “Crescendo.” But this interpretation?  All the musical elements stomp along at exactly the same level of volume with almost literally no build. Meanwhile, the lyrics seemingly confuse “crescendo” with “background noise.” Other than that, it’s not half-bad.
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: As if Pharrell gave himself the writing prompt of reworking “Lose Yourself to Dance” out of the shards of “Heart of Glass.” Shame about the lack of crescendoes.
[6]