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For Tyson Ritter, singer/bassist of the All-American Rejects, feeling doubt about the songs he was writing for the group's latest CD, "When The World Comes Down," was not unfamiliar.

What was different was the source of those feelings. This time Ritter had only himself to blame when he went through the emotional wringer.

That wasn't the case with the All-American Rejects' 2006 CD, "Move Along." The second album from the group, it sold more than two million copies, spawned three modern rock hit singles ("Dirty Little Secret," "Move Along" and "It Ends Tonight") and made the group one of the most popular newcomers in the genre.

But before that success, Ritter and his bandmates - guitarist and fellow songwriter Nick Wheeler, guitarist Mike Kennerty and drummer Chris Gaylor - had their initial demos for "Move Along" rejected by their label, Interscope Records, which ordered the group to go back to the drawing board.

Stung by the setback, they set up in an Atlanta hotel room and spent the next eight weeks feeling they were on a do-or-die mission, not just to write a second album but to save their record deal. "We spent eight weeks in Atlanta just killing ourselves to make 'Move Along,'" Ritter said in a recent phone interview from a tour stop in Montreal. "And that was a beautiful experience. It was complete (expletive), though. It was misery, reallyIt was really a dose of reality. If this doesn't happen, I've got to go to college. I've got to go work at Blockbuster."

The beauty of the situation, Ritter said, was that it brought the four band members closer together. But it was an experience the band hoped to avoid in making its third CD.

Ironically enough, Interscope did its part with "When The World Comes Down." But that created a whole different dilemma for Ritter and his bandmates.

"The label was sort of getting different on this record. Like everything was good enough," Ritter said. "I feel like we had to push ourselves more because the label was satisfied a lot sooner than last time. And that freaked us out, too, because we felt like no one was being honest. Then when you have to criticize yourself, that's when you just send yourself into a world of (expletive)."

This is what happened at several points during the year of work that produced "When The World Comes Down," which was released in December.

Ritter, in particular, struggled with self doubt on a number of occasions. Perhaps the most uncomfortable moment came after much of the tracking for "When The World Comes Down" had been finished. That's when Ritter became convinced the album needed a missing ingredient.

"It was just, wow, we have all these great songs, but we're just missing the boat," Ritter said. "Like we told ourselves we need one more song, like one more great song. I just knew it wasn't complete. It's a chain. The whole record is a big chain, and without one link, the whole thing breaks."

Ritter and Wheeler decided to rent a bus and take a cross country trip, hoping to write that one special song along the way. When they returned, they had that song, "Breakin' Is What The Heart Is For."

Ritter isn't being over-dramatic when he talks about setting high standards for "When The World Comes Down."

The group's 2002 self-titled CD gave the All-American Rejects a promising start, selling more than one million copies, while the single "Swing Swing" went top 10 on "Billboard" magazine's "Hot Modern Rock" chart. The band, though, could have been dismissed as one-hit wonders had "Move Along" flopped. And Ritter, who called "When The World Comes Down" the most important album of the group's career, knows that the third CD is an opportunity to prove that the popularity of "Move Along" was no fluke and his band has the talent to be successful for the long haul.

Still, the band didn't play it safe on "When The World Comes Down." Ritter said he expanded his range as a lyricist, stepping beyond the love songs of the first two CDs to write about a friend's death (the song "Believe") and even a little social commentary on the song "Real World." Musically, he said the new CD retains some of the power pop style of the first two albums, but explores a wider range of instrumental settings and intensities than before.

Ritter feels the new songs work well live, and the band has been mixing new songs (including "Gives You Hell," the top five modern rock single from "When The World Comes Down") in with fan favorites.

"This record is actually a lot easier to transpose live than 'Move Along,'" Ritter said. "This is the one record where the only bells and whistles and layers we actually threw on it were bells and whistles. As far as guitars, drums, vocals, this isn't the contemporary record that everyone's making. It's all to tape. We did it all to tape, like 1976."