Playing audio clips and lag in javascript

I'm having an issue with lag in javascript. I have many clips of audio a user can click on. I have a global "audioPlayer" that I start/pause and redefine everytime I play/stop something. But suppose I click on and off of the posts many times. Even though the posts stop and start as as they should, there's a HUGE lag before the last one plays. Such a large lag, too, that I believe instead of playing just the current audio player audio it's loading all previous audio from the posts I started to load and play and then stopped, even though it will only play the post most recently clicked. How should I fix this?

function didFinishPlayingAudio() {
    IS_PLAYING_SHOUT=false;
    alert("finished audio playing!")
}

var animationDiv;
var CURRENTLY_PLAYING_SHOUT;
var IS_PLAYING_SHOUT;
var audioPlayer;
 function playShout(sender) {
    console.log(sender.id)
    var uniqueIdentifier;
    if (sender.nodeName.toLowerCase() === "span")    {


       uniqueIdentifier=sender.parentNode.id
    } else if (sender.nodeName.toLowerCase() === "img")    {

         uniqueIdentifier=sender.id

    }
    var shout;
    for (i=0;i<shoutsArray.length;i++)   {
         if (shoutsArray[i].id==uniqueIdentifier)  {
           shout=shoutsArray[i];
        }
    }
    CURRENTLY_PLAYING_SHOUT=shout;
    var shoutAudioUrl=shout.get("audioData").url()

    if (!IS_PLAYING_SHOUT)  {
        playAudioAtUrl(shoutAudioUrl)

    } else  {
        if (shoutAudioUrl==audioPlayer.src)    {
            <!--            clicked on shout thats already playing-->
            audioPlayer.pause();
            audioPlayer=null;
            IS_PLAYING_SHOUT=false;
            console.log("stopped audio player")
        } else  {
            playAudioAtUrl(shoutAudioUrl)
        }
    }
}

function playAudioAtUrl(url)    {
    console.log(url)
    if (IS_PLAYING_SHOUT)   {
        audioPlayer.pause();
        audioPlayer=null;
    }
    console.log("playin dat audio")
    audioPlayer = new Audio(url);
    audioPlayer.addEventListener("ended", didFinishPlayingAudio);
    audioPlayer.id="shoutAudioPlayer"
    audioPlayer.play();
    IS_PLAYING_SHOUT=true;
}