A jaunt to the store. A screaming baby and the unlikely album that saved the day.

At 3 weeks old, we decided that maybe Eleanor was ready to see some of the world. We were mostly right.

We had errands to run, and we decided to bring Eleanor with us. You never know what you’re going to get with a newborn in, say, a giant grocery store, but we lucked out. She slept the entire time. For our smaller errands, we went the divide-and-conquer route, with my wife heading into the store, while I circled the parking lot(s) in the car, hoping Ellie wouldn’t stir.

But of course, Eleanor stirred. Then squawked. The cried. Then broke into a screech like a distressed velociraptor. It was bad. I reached back hoping to soothe her, which is when she began to sound like a partially-blocked shop-vac. Frazzled and stuck for ideas, I rapped on the car’s console till the first album on my phone came on. It was Alabama Shakes’ dazzling album, Sound & Color. “Shit” I thought.

“Shit”, because I know this album well. While it’s my favourite album of 2015, it’s also not exactly a collection of lullabies. Singer Brittany Howard’s voice is powerful as hell – to a stunning degree, but my first thought was “this is not going to calm her down.” I was joyously wrong.

Sound & Color is much more than the band’s signature, country-fried sound. It’s funk, it’s gospel, it’s soul, it’s punk. Good for a music critic; maybe not so good for a 3 week-old. Hence the “shit”.

But as soon as the album came on, Eleanor immediately calmed down. The xylophone sound on the title track, Brittany Howard’s falsetto on “Give me all your Love”, even the melody on “Shoegaze”; it all visibly altered her mood. None of the more erratic sounds affected her, and by the time “Gemini” and “Over my Head” came on, she was actually asleep. It was nothing short of a damned miracle.

And that’s that. Instead of setting this up deliberately and hoping to telegraph Eleanor’s mood, I did this out of desperation – and was thrilled at the result. I suspect it won’t be the last time.

For saving the day, and for being a downright brilliant record, I am going to give Alabama Shakes’ Sound & Color 5 out of 5 chill-as-hell Eleanor’s.

Here’s the whole album for your listening pleasure:

And here’s the updated playlist, with the best tracks on it added in.