So which is it? Is Howie Day the vulnerable guy who gets easily swept off his feet ("Brace Yourself") or is he the realist who recognizes that even true love isn't perfect ("Collide"). Both personas are present on Day's new album, Stop All the World Now, and the spiky-haired, 22-year-old singer-songwriter seems taken aback by the question.

"Are you trying to say I'm easy?" he laughs via phone from his Bangor , Maine home. "I'm on my first string of interviews, so I don't have the pat answers. Most of the songs are about me, but I think they're things people can relate to -- those initial feelings of falling for someone and being in the exciting beginning period. I think a song like 'Brace Yourself' reflects that. It's not something I do every week."

When Howie Day self-released his self-financed debut, Australia , three years ago, the singer-songwriter quickly became part of a crop of up-and-coming male singer-songwriters who wore their emotions proudly on their sleeves and sung about heavier things. He quickly made his way out of the coffeehouses and into the rock clubs.

"I sold that record out of the trunk of my car and over the Internet," he says. "That was the building block. We were psycho on the road, playing 300 shows a year. We were really trying to build something. Apparently, it worked."

Thanks to a grassroots campaign and good word of mouth, Australia was picked up by Epic and went on to sell over 100,000 copies. It was enough to earn Day the label's backing for Stop All the World Now, which was recorded in London and produced by Youth (The Verve, Crowded House, Dido). Mixed by Michael Bauer (Coldplay, David Gray, Starsailor), Chris Lord-Alge (Goo Goo Dolls, Shawn Mullins, Eric Clapton) and Clive Goddard (Sneaker Pimps, Marianne Faithful), the album's a far more produced affair. There's even a 25-piece orchestra on the album and a video filmed by Christopher Mills (Interpol, Vendetta Red). Youth, in fact, was only one of several producers from which Day had to initially choose but after he was chosen, Day went to London to record.

"That was an off-the-cuff decision," Day says of going overseas. "Someday I can tell my grandkids that I made a rock record in London . That's pretty cool. I think the album sounds more English than the songs are English. There's this English kind of sound and I can't put a finger on it. The only thing I can suggest is that Youth's producing it and the engineer is English."

While the soaring string arrangements and even Day's hushed vocals sound like distant cousins to the Verve's bittersweet symphonies, the one constant is Day's earnestness. Day says he tried to complicate things on Stop All the World Now so he doesn't sound so, well, immature.

"When I looked back at Australia , I realized I was just a pissed off, chip-on-my-shoulder, horny 18-year-old guy," he says. "I tried to not write every song about girls for this album. I just tried to branch out and push the envelope and have more of a variety. It's a natural next step for me."

Day, who's now touring with a band for the first time, will have his work set out for him as he tries to duplicate these songs live. His long-time fans are used to seeing him perform solo and manipulate tape loops that provide the backing music. Day still does that for a segment of the live show, but the emphasis this time out is on having the band interpret the songs. It's safe to say Day still stands to benefit even further from the burgeoning popularity of the male singer-songwriter -- John Mayer's recent album, Heavier Things, for example, has been selling well since it's release in September.

"I feel independent of that singer-songwriter movement," Day says. "But I do feel like it's good timing. I think it's great that my genre seems to be moving forward. But at the same time, I'm just going to do my thing and not cater to it just cause it's there. It's catering to me. I'm not catering to it."