The Norman Records review called the single a "fiendish mixture of The Towers of London and The Offspring."[1] Comparisons were made with Smashing Pumpkins, both favorable and unfavorable. Soundblab said that "their gloom laden guitars and wincing screeches - a la Smashing Pumpkins circa Mellon Collie - have been done better before."[2] However, Uber Rock called Son of Sam "the sort of three-minute anthem Billy Corgan would once have written before he disappeared into the O in his Zero T shirt," and declared Bombs Over Broadway to be a "caustic mix of The Pixies, with its chugging verse, before breaking into the type of riotous chorus that fellow countrymen The Living End have made their trademark."[3]
