Snow Patrol And Kylie Team Up On These Alarms

The new single lands July 1, and it started life in the Snow Patrol archives under the working title “KYLIE”.

Snow Patrol and Kylie have announced their new collaborative single, These Alarms, released July 1 via BMG. The track is available to pre-save now, with a limited-edition 7-inch vinyl also up for pre-order ahead of its physical release on August 21.

The cover art features an original painting by Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody. Ooh, yeah.

A Snow Patrol Song Literally Called KYLIE

The best part of this announcement is the backstory, because it sounds like something a fan would make up on Tumblr and then have to prove with screenshots.

These Alarms was originally recorded for Snow Patrol’s 2024 UK Number 1 album The Forest Is The Path, but at the time, the band had given it the working title KYLIE.

Gary Lightbody says he wrote the song with Kylie specifically in mind, then played it to bandmates Johnny McDaid and Nathan Connolly. They loved it, recorded it, and then realised the problem was painfully obvious: the song needed the person it had been quietly summoning all along.

“As a huge Kylie fan, I originally wrote These Alarms with her in mind,” Lightbody said. “All the way through the recording process the song was simply called ‘KYLIE’.”

And look, if you write a song called KYLIE and then do not put Kylie on it, that is less a creative choice and more a pop emergency.

Thankfully, they sent it over. Kylie heard it. Kylie liked it. Kylie recorded her vocals.

Balance was restored.

The Queen Has Entered The Snow Patrol Cinematic Universe

Kylie described the story behind the song as “irresistible”, which feels fair, because how could you not be curious?

Imagine being Kylie Minogue and finding out Snow Patrol have a song in the vault named after you. You would have to hear it. Legally? Spiritually? Pop culturally? All of the above.

“The story behind this song was irresistible,” Kylie said. “Hearing there was a demo called Kylie that had been living in the Snow Patrol archives was a complete surprise and, naturally, I was curious to hear it.”

Same, Kylie. Same.

She also called Gary “such a brilliant songwriter” and said being invited into the band’s world was “a total honour.”

It is a very sweet full-circle moment. Snow Patrol wrote a song with Kylie’s voice in mind, waited instead of forcing it onto an album where it did not quite belong, then gave it its own proper release once the missing piece arrived.

That is the sort of pop fate nonsense we can absolutely get behind.

So, What Does These Alarms Sound Like?

These Alarms is a “yearning, bittersweet anthem” built around urgent, pulsating synths, with Gary Lightbody and Kylie’s voices entwined before the whole thing opens into a sweeping chorus.

Which sounds exactly like the sort of thing you listen to while staring dramatically out of a car window, even if you are actually just on the bus to work, holding a leaking iced coffee and a bag of receipts.

Snow Patrol know how to build emotional momentum. Kylie knows how to make a song shimmer without losing the ache underneath. Put those two instincts together, and you’ve got something pretty special.

There is also something properly juicy about the vocal contrast. Gary Lightbody brings that open-hearted Snow Patrol melancholy, while Kylie can make even the cleanest pop moment feel glossy and human.

Snow Patrol Are Having A Very Big Year

The collaboration arrives during a huge stretch for Snow Patrol.

The band released The Forest Is The Path in 2024, earning their second UK Number 1 album. They are also marking the 20th anniversary of Eyes Open, the album that gave the world Chasing Cars, a song so culturally embedded it should probably have its own passport.

Eyes Open was the best-selling UK album of 2006 and remains one of the biggest albums of the 2000s. Chasing Cars became one of those songs that simply escaped regular song status and entered the emotional infrastructure. Weddings, breakups, TV montages, karaoke trauma, the works. Hell, I know you already know this.

So if you have ever whispered “if I lay here” with the gravity of someone experiencing all human emotion at once, congratulations. Snow Patrol got you, too.

The band is also playing a run of UK summer dates, including a major London show at Crystal Palace Park on July 3.

Kylie Remains Kylie, Obviously

Then there is Kylie, who continues to exist in her own glittering category.

Across her career, she has sold more than 80 million records worldwide, racked up billions of streams, collected BRITs, Grammys, MTV awards, and built the kind of cross-generational pop legacy most artists would need three lifetimes and a very generous fairy godmother to manage.

She is also the rare artist who can move between disco sparkle, club heat, emotional pop, camp excess, and sincere balladry without ever feeling like she has wandered into the wrong room.

That is why this collaboration makes more sense than it might first appear.

Snow Patrol bring the widescreen ache. Kylie brings the pulse, the lift, the star wattage, and that very specific Kylie ability to make longing sound expensive.

These Alarms Gets Its Own Little Universe

Gary Lightbody said that once Kylie recorded her vocals, the band knew the song should not be “buried somewhere on an album.”

That feels like the right call.

A collaboration like this comes with lore. You have the working title. You have the band writing with Kylie in mind. You have the long wait. You have the eventual vocal. You have Gary painting the cover art. You have the limited vinyl.

You can pre-save it now, order the 7-inch if you are a physical media hoarder (my preciooous).

Single Info

TLDR;

• Snow Patrol and Kylie have announced a new collaborative single, These Alarms.
• The song is released digitally on July 1, 2026, via BMG.
• A limited-edition 7-inch vinyl is available to pre-order, with shipping/release expected August 21.
• The song was originally recorded for Snow Patrol’s 2024 album The Forest Is The Path under the working title KYLIE.
• Gary Lightbody wrote the song with Kylie in mind, and the band held it back until she could record vocals.
• The cover art features an original painting by Gary Lightbody.
• Snow Patrol play Crystal Palace Park in London on July 3, 2026.

Stay unruly.