Lets start with a confession. I have not seen Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood. Last summer a baby started living in my house, which means I haven't seen a film at the movies since Rocky Balboa no less. However, I understand from my Kermode podcast and the reactions of friends that it is really rather good, and sees Daniel Day Lewis shouting a lot and the promise of lots of red stuff. Anderson has been a fan of the music of Radiohead for sometime, and whilst writing the screenplay for There Will Be Blood heard Jonny Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver, an orchestral piece commissioned by the BBC. This lead to Anderson approaching Greenwood to score his film, the soundtrack featuring excerpts from the previous composition; rather cruelly rendering it ineligible for Oscar nomination.

Recorded by orchestra at Abbey Road studios, it is a desolate piece at times, redolent of the vast, empty plains of America where the film is set. It is scored mostly for strings, opening track 'Open Spaces' seeing cello, violin and viola calling to each other, as if seeking their partners across the landscape. 'Future Markets' marks furious strokes of bow against instrument, rising in pitch before cutting back to silence, distant rumbles set against violent pizzicato. 'Prospectors Arrive' brings about a calm, piano and gentle horns smoothly pacifying the rest of the orchestra. In contrast, the stunning 'Henry Plainview' is anything but calm. It swells like the approach of a freight train, retreating into the distance before attacking, the music brushing by the edge of your nose before descending back to where it came. Its unsettling, disconcerting and mildly alarming to listen to.

The title track itself ploughs a similar furrow, disquieting, frantic rubs against cello halted by stubby beats of plucked strings. 'Oil' is peaceful and pastoral before 'Proven Lands', the only low-point on the album, sounds more in place on a videogame soundtrack. It feels discordant and out of place, particularly when viewed next to the final three tracks which see a return to the melody of the beginning. Even though I had no context within to place this music, I found it passionate, inspiring, and full of melodies to send the hairs on the back of my neck prickling with excitement and a desire to see the film.