POP REVIEW : SONG IS PORTRAIT OF MARITAL CONFUSION

As of today, anyone can legitimately hear part of the album. Columbia released “Brilliant Disguise,” the first single from “Tunnel of Love.”

And regardless of the furor over the unauthorized copies, the fact that there’s new Bruce music is clearly a surprise. One of rock’s most notorious perfectionists, Springsteen usually spends at least two years between albums--and although “Tunnel of Love” is his first new studio album since 1984, it comes a scant 11 months after last fall’s “Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band/Live 1975-1985.”

Releasing records more quickly is a smart way for Springsteen to demystify himself, to avoid the inflated expectations that come when he labors for years over an album.

“Tunnel of Love”--according to some who have heard the bootlegged tapes--is a mixture of solo performances and songs using various combinations of E Street Band members; if that sounds more offhand, less grandiose and perhaps less commercial than the 10-million-selling “Born in the U.S.A.,” it may well help defuse both the mania that greeted the release of the live album and the inevitable backlash that followed.

Of course, that matter that won’t be settled until the album has been out for a while. For now, the biggest questions are musical: What is “Brilliant Disguise” like, and what does it tell us about the upcoming album?

Well, here’s what “Brilliant Disguise” is not: It’s not an anthem like “Born in the U.S.A.” It’s not an up-to-the-minute production like “Dancing in the Dark.” And it’s not an angry political statement like “War.”

Instead, it’s a mid-tempo rocker with the chiming, ‘60s feel of the Searchers’ “Needles and Pins,” a sound Springsteen has used before on tunes like “The Ties That Bind” and “Bobby Jean.” Springsteen fans might expect this kind of song to boast a Clarence Clemons sax solo and a full-bodied, massive sound from the E Street Band--but there’s no sax, and the arrangement is slightly sparer than might be expected.

On first listening, the single is a winning, likable song, a tune about romance on an album that’s reportedly full of tunes about romance. It doesn’t sound like a sure-fire smash hit, but Springsteen’s popularity will undoubtedly put it on the radio--and with its understated charm and soaring melody, it should wear well.

But listen more carefully, and “Brilliant Disguise” becomes something far more moving. Anybody expecting the recently married Springsteen to write hymns to domestic bliss has another thing coming: This is an unsettling, unsparing and gripping portrait of romantic uncertainty.

Essentially, Springsteen tackles romance and marital commitment with the same attitude he used to detail the economic struggles at the heart of songs like “My Hometown.” He hangs on to a dreamer’s optimism, but undercuts that with a disillusioned realist’s knowledge that dreams don’t last and reality can be deadly hard.

In “Brilliant Disguise,” the singer is consumed by doubts about his relationship, doubts about his ability to ever fully connect with another human: “Tell me what I see/When I look in your eyes/Is that you, baby/Or just a brilliant disguise?”

In the crux of the song, the singer admits that he may not trust his girl “ ‘cause I damn sure don’t trust myself”--and in the verse that follows, Springsteen’s depiction of uncertainty turns downright scary:

Now you play the loving woman

I’ll play the faithful man

But just don’t look too close

Into the palm of my hand

Oh, we stood at the altar

The gypsy swore our future was right

But from the wee, wee hours

Maybe, baby, the gypsy lied

So when you look at me

You better look hard and look twice

Is that me, baby

Or just a brilliant disguise?

“Brilliant Disguise” is not a ground-breaking masterpiece, but it doesn’t have to be. Intimate and spare, vivid and sobering, the song is yet another denial of the tired complaint that Springsteen romanticizes his subject matter: In this song, he doesn’t even romanticize romance .

When the controversy over the unauthorized copies of “Tunnel of Love” is forgotten, it’ll still be a song worth remembering.