Give Out But Don't Give Up

Give Out But Don't Give Up was the band's fourth studio album. Creation released it in the UK and Sire in the US. It reached number 2 in the UK and number 22 on the US Heatseekers chart. The cover is a cropped photograph from William Eggleston's Troubled Waters series. The band began work at Roundhouse Studios in London in September 1992, then recorded in Memphis in 1993 with the producer Tom Dowd and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section. Tracks were later reworked with producers including George Drakoulias and David Bianco, and George Clinton produced Funky Jam, Free and the title track with Mike E. Clark.

The record's roots-rock stylings were compared to the Rolling Stones and the Muscle Shoals sound, and many fans of Screamadelica took it badly. Melody Maker's Paul Lester called it dreadful, and the Los Angeles Times and Spin found it derivative. Select praised the band for embracing unfashionable rock and soul attitudes, and NME called it the most controversial album of 1994. Later writers were kinder. Rock: The Rough Guide called it a superb R&B album, while AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it a mess.

In October 2018 the band released Give Out But Don't Give Up: The Original Memphis Recordings, with the original mixes of the Ardent sessions. Alan McGee had thought the Memphis tracks too flat, so they were reworked for the 1994 release, and Innes later found the tapes in his basement. The reissue has a second disc of outtakes. The story is told in the documentary Primal Scream: The Lost Memphis Tapes.