Some collaborations take a while to arrive. Snow Patrol have released "These Alarms," a duet with Kylie Minogue that the band's frontman, Gary Lightbody, says was written for her from the start — and then kept on the shelf until the pop star herself agreed to sing on it.
A song with Kylie in mind
Lightbody has said the idea of Minogue's voice was baked into the song from the beginning. "As a huge Kylie fan I originally wrote 'These Alarms' with her in mind," he explained, as reported by NME. He brought it to his bandmates Johnny McDaid and Nathan Connolly, and the group recorded a version for their most recent album — but something was missing. "We all knew it was Kylie's voice that was the missing piece," Lightbody said.
Tellingly, the track carried the working title "KYLIE" during those sessions, a placeholder that turned out to be a statement of intent.
Held back for the real thing
The band had recorded the song for their 2024 album The Forest Is the Path, which topped the UK chart, but chose to leave it off and wait, RTÉ reported. When Minogue finally recorded her vocals, Lightbody said, the band decided the song deserved to stand alone rather than sit among album tracks — releasing it as a standalone single instead.
Minogue, for her part, said she was drawn in by the song's backstory and by being invited into the band's world. The result is a duet in which the two voices trade lines before joining in a large, sweeping chorus — pairing Snow Patrol's stadium-sized melancholy with the polished dance-pop that has defined much of Minogue's long career.
Two long careers meeting
The collaboration brings together two enduring acts from different corners of pop. Snow Patrol, the Northern Irish–Scottish band best known for the 2006 ballad "Chasing Cars," have spent two decades as a fixture of anthemic guitar music. Minogue, an Australian star whose career stretches back to the late 1980s, remains one of pop's most recognizable figures, with a recent late-career resurgence.
"These Alarms" was released on July 1. For a song that spent years waiting for the right voice, its unusual path to release has become part of its appeal — a reminder that, sometimes, the missing piece is worth holding out for.
