Having released their 2019 album, Surviving, only a few months before the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the band members elected not to use their time in lockdown writing new music like many other artists did.

Ultimately, this excitement was what inspired the lyrics for "Something Loud", with Adkins and drummer Zach Lind discussing the When We Were Young music festival as a more specific influence.

- Jim Adkins[4]The song is also a retrospective on the band's career, as the lyrics recount their early days of touring and how they've grown over the years.

Adkins discussed these themes in a press statement on the song, feeling that "I thought I made the most of the early band days, I realize now I missed some stuff.

[8][10] Philip Trapp of Loudwire felt the song "keeps things fresh by further distilling what Jimmy Eat World does best — charting youth's bloom through cinematic rock music that doesn't seem to age.