Robert Kelly’s had a productive 2012: issuing his spectacularly titled memoir (Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me) in June, providing the inspired opening to Kanye’s otherwise spotty posse record and, most recently, re-upping his tireless Trapped in the Closet saga for a promised 18 new episodes. Meanwhile, Write Me Back (RCA), his 12th album in 20 years, continued in the retro-minded vein of 2010’s Love Letter, drawing inspiration from silky-smooth 1970s disco-soul — blatantly hearkening back to Teddy, Barry and Songs in the Key-era Stevie — along with two of the corniest ’50s-rock pastiches this side of Smokey Joe’s Café. All was suffused with that ineffable Kellysian wit, complete with outlandish extended metaphors like “Fallin’ from the Sky” — essentially the anti-“I Believe I Can Fly.” Hard to say whether tonight’s set list will favor the family-friendly sincerity of this recent mode or look ahead to the forthcoming, presumably self-explanatory Black Panties (due next year). But it’s called the “Single Ladies Tour,” which could constitute a clue.

Thu., Nov. 29, 7:30 p.m., $49.50-$150, with Tamia, Tower Theater, 19 S. 69th St., 610-352-2887, thetowerphilly.com.