Will go with the Rising Storm.
Though there are fillers (mostly the faster tracks), this is such an ace record. the choice of covers is astonishing. you can listen to the whole record without ever having the urge to skip a track or cut one short, something that might happen with the longer songs on "up down". also, the cover is godlike.
top picks:
frozen laughter
to l.n.
mr. wind
as for the summer sounds: its strong suit is its abundance of ace original songs. here, it beats calm before. some of those tunes are too good to be true.
downsides for me: some of the songs are too long.
the production is not up to what the rising storm delivered. both records have "amateurish" bits here and there, recording or production wise, but with calm before it's never a flaw. with up down, the mix sometimes is not good, especially the organ can start to hurt. it feels too powerful.
and, let's talk about the elephant in the room... the cover is ass-ugly.