Not to be con­fused as a reunion of the defunct 1980s new wave Ser­bian band, New York indie band La Strada is sim­i­lar to Zachary Fran­cis Condon-led Beirut but with a more rus­tic folk mentality. 　　I can’t imag­ine either the stress or the fun involved in col­lab­o­rat­ing with so many musi­cians to make such pleas­ant music. With seven mem­bers (James Craft — accor­dion, gui­tar, vocals; Devon Press — gass, buitar, and accor­dion; Ted Lat­tis — gui­tar; Brady Miller — drums; Maria Jef­fers — cello; Daniel Baer — vio­lin; and Cor­rina Albright — viola), La Strada feels more like an orches­tra than a band, join­ing the likes of Arcade Fire and Mar­got & The Nuclear So And So’s as sim­i­lar indie group pop darlings. 　　What makes La Strada dif­fer­ent is their use of pop melody to har­mo­nize their sound rather than carry it for­ward. Every mem­ber lends their vocal tal­ents to the music and the col­lec­tive ooh’s and ah’s are used to tell part of the story as well. There are no lyrics in “Fly­ing” but the title can point you to direc­tion the song takes given the band’s pleas­ing, almost relaxed demeanor. 　　The group vocals depict not only the joy they want to project in the song, but also the joy they seem­ingly had and have in per­form­ing the song. With that in mind, it’s hard not to iden­tify with the music (notwith­stand­ing respec­tive to tastes). The ode to moth­ers in “Mama” is heart­felt, espe­cially with the col­lec­tive choral chants that help con­vey com­pas­sion and empathy. 　　The open­ing “Orphan” has the utmost charm (with nudges from Craft singing “wake up you silly / shake your sleepy head”), encom­pass­ing unyield­ing love filled with pageantry ambiance by the lovely strings. 　　The opus “Star­ling” show­cases what a full seven-piece out­fit can do with strings, per­cus­sions, and a cou­ple of accor­dions in telling the story of a lit­tle bird in a big world: “Wel­come to your new world / you’re look­ing through the eyes / of a child again / the waves are crash­ing to the ground.” Unfor­tu­nately, La Strada’s epony­mous debut EP is six tracks long, albeit fuller and more com­plete than most hour-long sets dream to be.