TAEMIN's 'PHASE 1: Soft Violence' Arrives August 31 — 11 Tracks and a LiMiNaL World Tour Across Three Continents

TAEMIN's 'PHASE 1: Soft Violence' — the opening installment of a sequenced multi-part project and the SHINee member's first solo album since completing his mandatory military service — drops August 31, 2026 at 6 p.m. KST. The 11-track album launches simultaneously with confirmed dates for the 2026–27 TAEMIN WORLD TOUR [LiMiNaL], which opens at Seoul's Jamsil Indoor Stadium on September 18 and extends through North America (San Jose, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Prairie, Chicago, Newark) and Latin America (Monterrey, Mexico City, Santiago, Lima, São Paulo), with further stops to be announced.

The full tracklist for 'PHASE 1: Soft Violence' is: 'FLOAT,' 'Gooey,' 'Let Me Be the One,' 'PERMISSION,' 'Sober,' '1004,' 'Easy Loving You,' 'SKIN,' 'PARASITE,' 'Frankenstein,' and 'This is the End.' The 'PHASE 1' designation signals a planned multi-chapter structure — this album is the opening argument of a larger artistic statement rather than a standalone comeback. Eleven tracks is substantial for a K-pop solo project, and the sequencing of title track candidates within the run suggests TAEMIN intends each phase to function as a self-contained body of work while contributing to a longer arc.

The title 'Soft Violence' sustains the conceptual tension that has defined TAEMIN's solo output since 'Ace' in 2014: surfaces that are precise, disciplined, and controlled, concealing emotional content that is more extreme and disruptive. His best-known solo works — 'Move,' 'Want,' 'Criminal' — operate on that principle. 'Soft Violence' names the dynamic directly, and the tracklist titles (PARASITE, Frankenstein, SKIN) suggest the album extends rather than abandons that framework.

The 2026–27 TAEMIN WORLD TOUR [LiMiNaL] takes its title from the Latin 'limen,' meaning threshold or boundary. The thematic framing positions the tour as a transit between states — appropriate for a first post-military solo album cycle, which is itself a boundary crossing. The Seoul leg at Jamsil Indoor Stadium (September 18–20) anchors the tour domestically before the North American dates run in October and November. The six North American stops represent TAEMIN's widest US live footprint as a solo act; his pre-service touring was concentrated in Asia, leaving large portions of his North American fanbase without access to live performances.

The Latin American leg — Monterrey, Mexico City, Santiago, Lima, São Paulo — reflects the sustained K-pop audience growth across the region that has made it a mandatory stop for major tours in 2026. TAEMIN's regional fanbase in Latin America has grown substantially since his last solo touring cycle, driven by streaming and algorithmic distribution that reached audiences independently of traditional promotional infrastructure. The LiMiNaL tour is the first opportunity many of those fans will have had to attend a TAEMIN live show.