In late 1986, the remaining two members, Richard Jobson (vocals) and Russell Webb (bass), reunited as a duo and began working on new material under the Armoury Show name, including "New York City".

[1] Speaking to Daily Record in 1987, he stated, "Glasgow is still painted as a dirty, violent city, while New York is supposed to be the cosmopolitan, arty centre of the world.

[6] In 2013, Cherry Red Records released an expanded two-disc edition of the Armoury Show's 1985 album Waiting for the Floods.

[8] Upon its release, Jerry Smith of Music Week called "New York City" an "excellent rap and rhythm influenced number", with a "chanted chorus" and "jaundiced view of the Big Apple".

[11][12] John Lee of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner praised the "nervy and raw" track as the "best" Armoury Show single since "Castles in Spain".

"[13] Jim Whiteford of The Kilmarnock Standard considered "New York City" to be a "part poem/part song", with a "caustic comment on the American super-city" that "won't bridge any gaps between ourselves and the colonials".

"[15] Paul Benbow of the Reading Evening Post remarked, "'If New York is the promised land then Glasgow must be heaven' wail the vocals.