The Sacramento News & Review calls There Will Be Blood "a real achievement" and says that with the film, director Paul Thomas Anderson "has achieved a bombastic breakthrough ... This is the best work he’s ever done." It is Daniel Day-Lewis, "a titan" in the lead acting role, and Jonny Greenwood as composer of the score "without whose contributions the movie almost certainly wouldn’t work," writes the News & Review's Jonathan Kiefer. He calls Greenwood an "essential performer" in the film and the music just "what this throbbing film needs."

The Bay Area Reporter says that Jonny Greenwood's score for There Will Be Blood "is nothing short of mind-blowing." Writes reviewer Gregg Shapiro: "Greenwood's stunning compositions and orchestration put this soundtrack in a class by itself."