was claimed by Drummond to be a striking coincidence: "Down Town" was not included on either of The JAMs' albums, instead featuring on their 1988 compilation and remix album, Shag Times, along with an instrumental remix credited to The KLF. Composition "Down Town" is, like most of Drummond and Cauty's work of 1987, a social critique of Great Britain realised as house music. Its central theme is social exclusion, poverty and homelessness, in which snatches of Clark's "Downtown"—an awestruck ode to hedonistic city nightlife—are juxtaposed with raps by Drummond, wailing sirens and original choral gospel vocals full of Christmas optimism, provided by the London Community Gospel Choir. These disparate elements are held together by a beatbox rhythm, a bassline borrowed from "Axel F", and an accompaniment of piano and Hammond organ. During one verse, Drummond raps: "Downtown, down and out, dying in the dead of night, with your Special Brew and your special view of a world that could be right". Joined by the gospel choir's refrain of "Glory!", Drummond continues "[Glory!] What glory? [Glory!] In a wine bar world? [Glory!] in a tenement block? [Glory!] OK, let's hear it!". In each chorus, the gospel choir sing of Jesus' birth. This juxtaposition of Christmas with urban homeless alcoholism was revisited by Drummond and Cauty's later arts project, the K Foundation, whose final act to date involved distributing thousands of cans of strong lager to London's homeless on Christmas Eve in 1995. Reviews "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: "[The JAMs] may not be the hippest, sanest or sweetest band to stalk the Earth this year but they're certainly the most imaginative ... [T]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". The following week, NME journalist James Brown noted the accomplished dance music production of recent KLF Communications releases: However, Record Mirror did not approve of The JAMs' comparatively sample-free offering, calling "Down Town" "a creature tamed" and wondering "without outlaw credentials what's left?" Formats and track listings 7" single (UK) "Down Town (118 BPM)" (edit) - 4:01 "Down Town"