Glass Animals are one of Oxford's most impressive musical exports – filling stadiums and arenas around the world. And after a short time away, they are back with a new tune which is taking the world by storm.

Despite huge commercial success critical acclaim and even a Mercury Prize nomination, the band, which formed at St Edward’s School in Woodstock Road, appeared to have gone quiet.

Last year the four-piece of singer, songwriter and producer Dave Bayley and bandmates Joe Seaward, Ed Irwin-Singer and Drew Macfarlane were forced to cancel tour dates after drummer Joe was hit by a truck while cycling.

The musician suffered a broken leg and fractured skull in the crash and had a titanium pin inserted into his leg and brain surgery to deal with a 'collapsed skull', which affected his ability to speak.

But now they are well and truly back, releasing a new track Tokyo Drifting. They have also returned to playing live, this month performing a surprise show at Oxford’s Bullingdon, in Cowley Road, which sold out in just 37 seconds.

Glass Animals shot to fame with their 2014 debut Zaba. Their second album How To Be A Human Being was one of the most critically acclaimed records of 2016 and went on to be nominated for the Mercury Album Of The Year Award in 2017.

Their tune Gooey was the second most shared track on the music streaming site Spotify in 2014.

Dave has also worked with a number of artists outside the band including 6lack, Khalid, Joey Bada$$, DJ Dahi, Flume and MorMor.

The new tune features American rapper Denzel Curry.

Dave said: “The first thing Denzel said to me about the track was ‘This is fire’. Then he said, ‘Is this you flexin’?’ and I said - ‘Yeh...it is...sort of.

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"It’s an ironic internal flex - me as a narrator describing an extreme alter-ego version of myself; a version of me that can do things that I’m uncomfortable doing.

“I think this kind of character is someone we all create for ourselves now to some extent.

“We have these curated versions of ourselves on the internet – beautiful, edited, cool, distilled versions of us, all slightly superhuman. You can push and push and push yourself to hide and ignore your vulnerabilities like that...but it comes at a cost. It’s not real and it isn’t sustainable.”

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Tokyo Drifting comes alongside an official video featuring Dave and Denzel.

After Joe's accident, Dave told fans: "I wish more than anything that this accident hadn’t happened and that Joe was okay and that we would still be coming to hang with you all, but life has thrown something horribly sad and unexpected at us, and we need to do everything in our power to conquer it and get Joe back on his feet."

They were forced to cancel gigs in the US, Spain, France and Germany, but are set to announce a full live tour in the new year.