I'm mostly through my 2nd spin in my car as I drive around town/commute to work, and I've got to agree, the back half or so of the album is definitely better. The songs they released are good, but not indicative of the greatness that the rest of the album contains.
I'm not a HUGE Kansas fan, even though I own all of their studio albums, I'm not as well versed in them as I could say I am with bands like Rush, Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, etc. Kansas really only appealed to me with their first 6 or so albums, but if I can listen to this one and be blissfully reminded of some of that greatness from their early days, then I can say they did a bang up job with creating an album that is very much Kansas while still sounding new and fresh, and not totally re-treading on old ground for the sake of nostalgia, though there is that one song where the violin line sounds almost just like a song from their earlier albums, and it bugs me that I cannot recall which song I think of when I hear that part.
-Marc.