"Down Town" was, after "All You Need Is Love", the second of The JAMs' three 1987 singles to become "NME" "single of the week". The British music paper called it "One massive hell-hating holler of a song", and concluded: "JAMs may not be the hippest, sanest or sweetest band to stalk the Earth this year but they're certainly the most imaginative ... hey've fired a musical trail so shocking they couldn't have kept you more on your toes if they'd stuffed a handgrenade up your ass and sent you out to tap dance in a pair of stilettos".