'Red Alert' is a smouldering funky track with dirty basslines, sirens, synths and a pure-sexy female vocal to boot. It's twisted punk garage for 1999." Writing for Rolling Stone, Barry Walters called the song a "sharp, steady groove is subverted by a succession of P-Funk chanting, G-funk synth screeching, string-section interludes, furious bass doodles and sassy diva wails." Amanda Nowinski from Salon commented that "the everywhere club anthem that almost everyone with the prefix "DJ" seems to have already remixed, continues the hesher ragga vibe with the added P-Funk bass lines and who-you-lookin'-at? vocals." Sunday Mirror said it is "so funky it hurts." USA Todays Edna Gundersen said the song and "Rendez-Vu" "have personality as well as slapping bass lines and deep grooves." Bill Werde, assistant editor of CMJ New Music Monthly listed it as one of his best tracks of 1999. The Village Voice listed the track at number 27 on their annual Pazz & Jop poll. Music video The song has two different music videos, one for the UK and the other for the US. In the UK version, which was directed by Dawn Shadforth, Basement Jaxx work at a truck stop diner that is entered by a group of androids, who causes a meteor that was flying above to crash into the diner, which turns everyone into a group of rave-themed zombies. While this happens, one chef gets a plate in his head, another is morphed wearing a Chinese dragon head, the waitress is given an outfit in the similar style of the androids and several cafe patrons are forced to dance. The US version was shot in New York City, directed by Brian Beletic with creative direction by David Levinel, and features the Giuliani-era NYPD busting musical instrument owners. This version takes place in a world where music is outlawed and follows cops as they find and bust musicians, similar to the plot of Fahrenheit 451 but substituting books with music. The video includes cameo appearances by other musicians being arrested, most notably Moby. Legacy Pitchfork ranked the song at number 69 in their list of the "Top 200 Songs of the 1990s". Dutch author Ray Kluun's first and well-known novel Komt een vrouw bij de dokter (Love Life) quoted the lyrics from the song. Mixmag included the Steve Gurley mix of "Red Alert" in their list of "16 of the Best Uplifting Vocal Garage Tracks".