This category is for jazz albums -- mostly but not necessarily new releases -- that feature vocalists. It is up to the critic's discretion to decide which albums to consider here. Voting in this category is optional.
Critics were asked to designate any albums from their New Jazz Albums list that should be counted here. They were also asked to list up to 3 additional albums to count here. The lists are in the order provided, but there is no point system, so we only count votes.
The listings are sorted by votes (at the end of the line). The arrow at the end of the line will route you to a page listing all of the critics who voted for the album. Some entries may have footnotes. There is also a Notes section at the bottom of the page.
Total albums receiving votes: 0. Of these, 11 were initially released in 2024 (9.1%), and 109 in 2025. This is down from 9.7% in 2024.
This category was optional. 63 critics (37.7%, up from 23.7% in 2024) did not vote in this category, so 104 critics did vote. Of those, 23 (22.1%) voted for 1 album, 9 (8.6%) voted for 2 albums, 67 (64.4%) voted for 3 albums, 5 (4.6%) voted for 4 albums.
Vocals albums that received votes in 2024 as well as 2025. These are numbered by their position in 2024. In both years, all votes are counted equally:
The other '24 releases received no votes in 2025.
If an album received votes in the previous year, and received more votes this year, the two years' totals were added together. This applied to: