It's been six years since the last Snow Patrol album was released.

Although the Northern Irish band have been busying themselves with other projects - particularly Johnny McDaid, who has been writing and working with everyone from Ed Sheeran to Liam Gallagher - they haven't put out an album since 2011's 'Fallen Empires'.

However, that's likely to change this year as Gary Lightbody and co. are currently working on their seventh album which they plan to release in 2017.

Posting an update for fans to Instagram, Lightbody said that they had been working with producer Jacknife Lee and had had a 'breakthrough' recording session in February.

"For the folks asking about the new snow patrol album, #SP7, here’s the news," he wrote. "we had a breakthrough recording session in Feb and are on the home straight. The awesome jacknife lee is in the producer’s chair as usual and we have more time with him in the studio in may/june and will be finished at the end of june. hopefully that gives us plenty of time to bring the album out this year. that is the plan. Plans are fallible but we’ll damn well try our best.”

See the full message - and some song titles from the record - below:

 

For the folks asking about the new snow patrol album, #SP7. here’s the news. we had a breakthrough recording session in feb and are on the home straight. The awesome jacknife lee is in the producer’s chair as usual and we have more time with him in the studio in may/june and will be finished at the end of june. hopefully that gives us plenty of time to bring the album out this year. that is the plan. Plans are fallible but we'll damn well try our best. there have been a few false starts so i didn’t want to post something until i knew we were on the right track. we are. it’s sounding mighty. i’m very proud of what we’ve done so far and cannot wait for you all to hear it. thank you all for your patience and support. 6 years is a bloody eternity between albums we know so the fact people are still asking when it's coming means a lot to us. we’ll post updates from the studio from late may onwards. big love good people. gL.x

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