She worked with a number of different producers and songwriters on the album, including Greg Kurstin, J. R. Rotem, Wayne Hector, Toby Gad, Lester Mendez.

[3] Billboard felt that "this surprisingly lively set finds the former disco diva teaming with a crew of young collaborators for a series of uptempo forays into stomping dance-pop, juke-joint blues-rock, breezy Latin jazz and African-accented soul.

"[12] In his review for The Village Voice, Alfred Soto found that "on Crayons, it's like no time has passed at all, and of course it hasn't: As Lloyd Richards says to Margo Channing in All About Eve, the stars never die and never change.

"[13] Allmusic editor Andy Kellman found that Crayons "benefits from Summer's effortless energy; she was clearly into making this album, and her voice is as able and flexible as ever.

However, almost all of the material with which she has to work [...] would make more sense on an album by a female teen pop group from the UK or, in some cases, a young adult catering to the coffeehouse market [...] In-fashion vocal effects, which Summer certainly does not need, detract from a handful of these tracks, but as a whole, the album won't have trouble pleasing fans who just want to hear their queen have a blast and tear it up.

"[1] Slant Magazine critic Eric Henderson wrote that the album was Summer's "attempt to finally share, but the results are about as personal as food-dyed wax.