Wednesday, 10 December 2025

Kristian Noel Pederson - Bullshit & Gift Wrapping


15 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!

Buy-stream Bullshit & Gift Wrapping here (Bandcamp)

I discovered the delights of Kristian Noel Pedersen's contribution to the Great Christmas songbook pantheon during lockdown - and have written about his music every holiday season since 2021 (making this the fifth anniversary of embracing his festive follies). I've spent much of the intervening time between those Christmases catching up on his back catalogue - and am therefore thrilled that this year, he unwraps his 17th (!!) Yuletide project and it maybe his most insightful yet! Bullshit & Gift Wrapping (I find they always go together in the tantrum causing paper cut season in the days before Santa arrives) features a stockingful of his bestest pals contributing to the merriment across six exceptional new songs (and a few personal voicemail messages). Buckle up for a sleigh ride of an experience and then go social media everyone you've ever met about it!
  • Bullshit & Gift Wrapping ~ I love when Kristian delivers the unexpected. The title track isn't some raucous romp, but a reflective look at how the magic of the season may have been eroded by the ease of commercialism at the most wonderful time of year. It's affecting KNP's festive spirit, but not his ability to craft a brilliant mid-tempo pop score fuelled by pulsing percussion, engaging guitar and a chorus that you can't help but embrace and sing a long to. A bold move to open a Christmas album with a song steeped in such cynicism but it works wonderfully...
  • Christmas On Your Own ~ an effusive rock instrumental adds a necessary edge of the song as Kristian tells a tale of how the holidays can sometimes/often be a disappointment. As he ably regales his wintry tales of woe, there's still that element of childlike hope we all cling to - particularly when he sings "maybe it'll be better this Christmas". Futile musings or optimistic folly? Who can say - but that frisson of belief in change is what drives the human spirit. That's why this is one song you'll be singing out loud for all to hear!
  • Class Reunion, Local Bar ~ there's something delightfully every day about this play by play account of getting together with your high school pals, the quirks of finding people have changed, you've grown and the oddity of returning to childhood haunts as an adult. There's an element of Barenaked Ladies to the music, that off-kilter energy that becomes synonymous with the slight awkwardness of social interactions after time apart. That's not to say it is derivative - not in the slightest. It's wholly on brand for our KNP, a year round perennial to enjoy.
  • Winter (ft. Winterval) ~ there's something winterlicious (though isn't that a Toronto food festival) about such much of the solistice season in one song! It's a downbeat lo-fi duet about the temporary nature of this time year, with Kristian singing to acoustic guitar about the melancholy that can affect your mood (his gloominess giving modern rock vibes). This is juxtaposed with Winterval delivering an elegiac sounding percussion whilst singing of his own denouement of cold cold Canada Christmases. It's utterly compelling and captivating.
  • Christmas All Over Again! ~ people like me are super annoying at the most wonderful time of the year. We play Christmas music far too early (hey, 60 days of Yuletide melodies is not too much) and put up our trees on November 1st. How thrilling that Kristian has written an entire song about such shenanigans - set to an uptempo, addictive instrumental, it's a wink to those you can tell he wishes were bound & gagged in a closet until after thanksgiving; yet it's also recognition of how it is all worth it when the magic hits you like a hug from an old friend!!
  • Holiday Traditions ~ there's something ABBA-esque (think The Day Before You Came) about Mr Pederson's ability to turn observations into something so musically enchanting. This album has been like the littlest peak into his psyche and how the holidays can affect him. This acoustic strummer ends up being as warm as a mug of hot chocolate and just as satisfying. The album ends with one final voicemail from his mum - and, as much as Kristian, she's been the beating heart and anchor to this latest set of honest melodic reflections. Bring on album 18!
**Ghosts of Christmas past**
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