Primal Scream Give Out But Don't Give Up

The ever-mercurial Bobby Gillespie wasn’t content to bridge techno and indie with the wildly popular acid-house foray Screamadelica. No, he carried on as if it didn’t happen. As suggested by the album cover, which features a photo (titled Troubled Waters) by seminal Southern photographer William Eggleston depicting a confederate flag, 1994’s Give Out But Don’t Give Up finds Primal Scream drawing upon rock forms baked in the American South, the nationalistic Britpop climate be damned.

A debt to The Rolling Stones held over from Primal Scream inflects the tender balladry on “(I’m Gonna) Cry Myself Blind,” while “Funky Jam” is self-explanatory and the hit single “Rocks” trades, not surprisingly, in roadhouse rock ’n’ roll bravado. On the title track, George Clinton himself arrives to trade verses with the unflappable soul vocalist Denise Johnson atop a dour and hard funk groove.

Like Primal Scream’s broader discography, Give Out But Don’t Give Up is an assortment of freewheeling exercises—all of which deftly connect.