The There Will Be Blood soundtrack is for the 2007 film of the same name and features an original orchestral score by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. The soundtrack was released on December 17, 2007 in the United Kingdom and on December 18, 2007 in the United States.
Although widely admired and thought of as a contender for the Academy Award for Best Original Score at the 2008 Academy Awards, it was ruled ineligible due to its use of pre-existing material. The score features elements from Greenwood’s compositions ‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’ and Bodysong (such as the track “Convergence”, played atop the title track during the derrick fire sequence) and works from Arvo Pärt and the Violin Concerto in D by Johannes Brahms.
In December 2008, Greenwood’s score was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media” for the 51st Grammy Awards.
Speaking about the 3 cover variants pictured here, Greenwood said: “I don’t remember how often I revamped my custom soundtrack cover (#1) for There Will Be Blood. It were countless times, because I always found a design element in it, which in some way wasn’t perfect. In my first attempt I completely ignored the fact, that it should be a soundtrack cover and just cropped the teaser poster to a square. Then I redesigned it a couple months later by retouching away the billing block and adding album credits instead. Finally, another few years later, I recognized, that I’ve left out the religious metaphor behind the teaser poster design and – once again – started from scratch. My final design now resembles the teaser poster best and also carries on the Jesus cross reference. Finally I’m happy with it.
My other custom cover (#2) is – once again – based on a poster design by Alamo Drafthouse respectively Mondo. Olly Moss, one of the greatest, living design artists out there, created an excellent duotone poster for the Rolling Roadshow Tour.”
