Why the strange kanji usage in song lyrics?

This is extremely common in everything from manga and games to novels, not just song lyrics. It’s a rhetorical device (表現技法). Nath already explained it but here’s a quote from the Wikipedia page for furigana:

また漫画や小説、歌の歌詞などでは、特殊な効果を狙って、漢字や外来語で記したものを全く別の振り仮名で読ませることもある[2]。

and here’s a relevant part from 日本人の知らない日本語 (skip to 3m 2s if it doesn’t automatically start there):

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