Album Review: Audible Trauma by Loss Of Signal (by Lara Roberts)

“What year is it?” pleads Alan Parrish in the iconic 90s film, Jumanji. “1995, remember?” replies Judy Shepherd. After pressing play on Audible Trauma, I can honestly say that I now know exactly how Alan felt in that moment.

After discovering Blink 182 and Green Day in my early teens, I started to look for similar sounding bands (not using Napster or Limewire, I promise). After some searching and compilation-listening, I found smaller labels and bands including The Ataris and Useless ID, with their albums Anywhere But Here and Bad Story Happy Ending respectively hardly ever leaving my portable CD player. Both of those albums are still two of my all-time favourites, and they both have a certain sound that I can’t quite describe, but it’s a sound of familiarity and nostalgia. As I’ve gotten older and listened to more pop-punk bands of that era, it seems like there was a certain style that the smaller label pop-punk bands had, and it’s a sound that I haven’t heard it since the early 00s. But then I played Loss Of Signal’s debut album Audible Trauma.

As you make your way through this album, the band’s influences will come as no surprise – Blink 182, Green Day, Sum 41. Products Of Our Time opens up with a nod to the NOFX classic Dinosaurs Will Die, leading us on to the single Underdogs. This song really sets the tone for the rest of the album – adorable melodies, sweet harmonies, a catchy chorus, great guitar riffs. For me, this song is a big old calling to Allister’s classic 2002 album Last Stop Suburbia.

For the Blink 182 fans (I see you), Grown Ups will instantly grab your attention with Barker-esque drumming. Then there’s the Delonge-sounding opening riff to Break Out. The vocals on Home are a mixture of self-titled era Hoppus and Delonge. But as clear as the influences are, Loss Of Signal still make the songs their own.

It’s a tale as old as time – songs about love and loss, with a dash of politics (that’s the punk part of pop-punk, of course). If you grew up during the heady days of the golden era of pop-punk – late 90s to the mid 00s – I can’t recommend this album enough. Audible Trauma is an absolute joy to listen to. I found myself reminiscing of my younger years, of friends that I’ve loved and lost. The album reminded me of the excitement I felt when I first discovered the bands that I still listen to and love, even 20 years later. Loss Of Signal know that if something ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Stream and download Audible Trauma on Bandcamp here.

Like Loss Of Signal on Facebook here.

This review was written by Lara Roberts.